City to Resolve Lingering Dispute Over Legitimacy of ‘Scrimmages’

City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness vows that this will be the last season City and Southern Section teams squabble during the spring sports season over such basic issues as what constitutes a game.

Ever since the City added a third round of baseball and softball league games 10 years ago, City and Southern Section teams have disagreed on how their nonleague games should be characterized. When teams meet in tournaments, no problems arise--both sections recognize those contests as official games. But when teams meet before City schools start league play, controversy invariably ensues.

Paid officials preside and rules are followed, so Southern Section teams count the contests as games. But City schools claim the contests are part of their allotment of six nonleague scrimmages.

So, Simi Valley claimed victory over eventual City 4-A champion Canoga Park when the Pioneers won, 8-7, last March. No, said Canoga Park. Only a scrimmage. The question arose again in a Simi Valley win over Canoga Park on Tuesday.

What about El Camino Real’s winning streak that reached 73 softball games before the Conquistadores lost to Sylmar in last season’s City 4-A final? Royal and Newbury Park are not too impressed; both Southern Section teams have defeated El Camino Real in preleague play the past two seasons.

“When one side says they’re playing a game, and we say we’re scrimmaging, that’s not a healthy situation,” Harkness said. “I don’t like any situation where we come out looking like fools.

“The Southern Section is not to blame. We either have to prohibit scheduling Southern Section teams or address what we’re doing. In lieu of scrimmages, we’ll have to put in practice games, but that will increase expenses for game officials, which is not popular with schools.

“This isn’t an easy one to solve, but I guarantee you we will not go into next baseball season with the status quo.”

Releaguing update: Harkness said response remains positive to the City’s sweeping releaguing proposal, but he expects two changes to become part of the package when it is submitted in April to the section’s governing body, the Interscholastic Athletic Committee. Harkness expects the proposal to be ratified and take effect next fall.

The proposal divides the City’s 49 teams into six conferences, five of which consist of two, four-team leagues. The sixth conference includes a five-team league.

Valley baseball teams were scheduled to play each member of its own league four times and the four other conference teams once. That format will change, Harkness said.

“Baseball coaches objected to that format so we will have a different one,” he said. “We haven’t finalized a proposal yet, but somehow we’ll come up with a different concept.”

The other change affects Verdugo Hills, which probably will be moved from the league with Grant, North Hollywood, Poly and Sylmar to a league that includes Belmont, Eagle Rock, Hollywood and Marshall.

“We’re going to hear response from high school principals by April 4 and then we’ll make our recommendations to IAC,” Harkness said. “I expect it will be passed. We want to get going with it because people are waiting on schedules for next football season.”

Hottest ticket in town: Terry Dobbins, Simi Valley’s athletic director, called Thursday’s basketball game against Manual Arts the biggest sporting event in his 14 years at the school. The school put 1,200 tickets on sale at noon Wednesday and the game sold out in 22 minutes.

Manual Arts bought up its ticket allotment of 750, but demand was so high that fans plunked down $2 each to watch the game on closed-circuit television in the school’s multipurpose room, located next door to the gym. The school sold 200 TV tickets for Tuesday’s 92-67 victory over Santana of Santee and another 200 for Thursday’s game.

“We opened the doors for Tuesday’s game at 6:30 and it was like a stampede,” Dobbins said of the scramble for seats. “The place was packed 40 minutes before game time. For the Manual Arts game, I had people calling me at home for tickets. One guy I never heard of offered me $50 for two tickets.”

Repeat, repeat: Now that bad luck has repeated itself, San Fernando Coach Steve Marden is hoping good luck will, too.

Last season, when senior left-hander Bobby Aparicio developed elbow trouble and the Tigers’ pitching corps seemed thin, sophomore Frank Serna came out of nowhere to post an 8-1 record and earn All-Valley and All-City honors. Serna led San Fernando to the Mid-Valley League title at 11-4.

This year, however, it is Serna who will be sidelined: He is academically ineligible. Marden is hoping a savior will again step forward.

“It happened once, so maybe it’ll happen again,” Marden said. “Hey, nobody really thought Frank would emerge like that last year.”

With Serna out, San Fernando will rely on two left-handers. Senior Rudy Vargas, who was was 3-2 with a 3.85 earned-run average as the No. 2 starter last year, and sophomore Hector De La Cruz now form the starting rotation.

Marden said Vargas can be “as good or better than Serna” when throwing his curve for strikes and that De La Cruz is also a capable starter. But the thought of two left-handers in the rotation has Marden a little leery.

“We’re going with the goofy arms,” Marden quipped. “I don’t think I ever met a lefty that wasn’t a little, uh, different. I never know what’s going to happen when a lefty is out there.”

If either falters, senior right-hander Vince Ortega, who was 1-0 with 3 saves and a 2.95 ERA last season, should provide solid bullpen support.

Mid-Valley play opens Monday.

Strong-armed tactics: The Hart baseball team has had some trouble getting its offense started. In fact, in three games, Hart’s bats have produced just 9 runs on 14 hits.

Yet the team is 3-0 going into today’s championship round of the El Segundo tournament.

Strange? Well, it may seem so until Hart’s pitching is examined. In 21 innings, Jason Edwards and Chris Matkin have allowed only 2 runs--neither of which was earned. That makes the team earned-run average a clean 0.00.

Fence buster: Agoura left fielder Mark Costes was determined to catch a fly ball hit by Oak Park’s Gary Silverman last week and nothing was going to stop him--except a five-foot high chain-link fence at Agoura. Despite pleas from his teammates to stop, Costes ran full bore into the unpadded fence and then collapsed in pain.

Silverman’s hit traveled 370 feet for his first career home run, but Agoura coaches were more concerned about Costes’ condition than the score.

“I could tell by the way his head jerked back that he was really hurt,” Coach John Crow said. “His face hit the fence just below the nose. I thought he lost two teeth, possibly three. He bled like crazy.”

Costes lost his left front tooth, broke two others off at the root and loosened three more. Agoura beat Oak Park, 9-3, in the nonleague opener.

Costes told Crow he would be in uniform for today’s game against Moorpark.

“I wouldn’t be upset if he wasn’t there,” Crow said. “He wanted to come back right away. But once the novocaine wore off, he was in a lot of pain.”

Barometer breaker: The best way City Section volleyball teams in the Valley are able to gauge their talent is by playing teams from the Westside such as University and Palisades.

Frequently, Valley teams have been unable to measure up. So how significant was Kennedy’s 10-15, 15-3, 15-12, 12-15, 15-11 victory over University last week?

“It was monumental,” Kennedy Coach Mike Stanton said. “The kids played great.”

Kennedy had lost to University, the defending 4-A Division champion, in the teams’ five previous meetings. Brett Merritt, a 6-4 senior, led the Cougars with 23 kills and 22 blocks.

“He played out of his head,” Stanton said of the All-West Valley League selection. “He just did a great job.”

Staff writers Steve Elling, Chris J. Parker and Sean Waters contributed to this notebook.