Comet Cagers at Full Strength for Tough L.A. Games Tourney

For many of Southern California’s top prep basketball players, the L.A. Games tournament starting Saturday will mark the last time they play with their high school teams until August.

Most of the big-name players will spend a major part of July participating in various all-star camps around the country under the eyes of college coaches. Under a new NCAA rule, college coaches are allowed to recruit in the summer only during a three-week period in July, when virtually all of the high-profile camps are scheduled.

“The new recruiting period has altered everybody’s schedule a lot,” said St. Bernard Coach Jim McClune, who teaches at the Nike camp in Princeton, N.J., one of the most prestigious all-star gatherings. “We have to pack in (summer games) before everybody disappears.”

Westchester Coach Ed Azzam should benefit from the rule. His team was without two of its best players--6-7 forward Zan Mason and point guard Sam Crawford--at last year’s L.A. Games because they were attending all-star camps.

This year, however, Azzam expects to have the Comets at full strength when they open the 21st annual Games against Burroughs of Burbank at 4 p.m. Saturday at Hamilton High in West Los Angeles.

Westchester is the third seed in the 128-team competition, the largest boys high school basketball tournament in the nation.

The Comets were seeded fourth but moved up after top-seeded Crenshaw, the defending L.A. City 4-A champion, pulled out of the tournament. The Cougars have won five of the last seven Games championships. Cleveland of Reseda is the defending champion.

With Crenshaw out of the field, defending state champion Manual Arts and Westchester are considered the top teams in the tournament, which concludes with the championship game at 3 p.m. June 25 at El Camino College.

Of the South Bay’s 15 entries, seventh-seeded St. Bernard and Inglewood, led by standout forward Harold Miner, also are among top contenders.

Westchester’s formidable lineup is headed by Mason, the most valuable player at last year’s Las Vegas Holiday Tournament, and Crawford, a 5-9 guard with few peers. Both will be seniors next season, as will 6-6 Renaud Gordon and 6-5 Booker Waugh, who round out the team’s tall front line.

Azzam says the four are scheduled to attend several all-star camps.

“Zan is going to just about everything that exists,” he said. “And I know Sam is going to most of them.”

Azzam says he enjoys the Games because of the diverse competition. The Comets have advanced as far as the quarterfinals.

“It’s a great opportunity to play schools from out of the area,” he said. “The format is good. It’s not so much the winning and the losing, as other tournaments tend to stress. It’s always been the competition.

“It’s a learning experience. Even for a team as supposedly good as we are, there are still things to learn.”

Other South Bay teams in the boys basketball competition are ninth-seeded Palos Verdes, Banning, San Pedro, Carson, Redondo, Hawthorne, Gardena, West Torrance, Morningside, El Segundo, Leuzinger and North Torrance.

In an attractive local match-up, St. Bernard will play Gardena at 9 a.m. Saturday at El Camino College.

St. Bernard boasts three players of all-star caliber: 6-10 center Ed Stokes, 6-4 forward Juno Armstrong and 6-1 guard Mark Raveling, son of USC Coach George Raveling. McClune said Stokes and Raveling have been invited to the Nike camp and Armstrong will participate in the B.C. camp in Pittsburgh.

“Stokes will be playing against bigger, stronger players at the Nike camp,” McClune said. “I can’t provide that kind of competition for him. It’s good for him.”

Sponsored by the Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce, the Games will feature 11,000 Southern California prep athletes competing in 13 sports. There are 66 South Bay teams participating in basketball, football, baseball, softball, volleyball, soccer and water polo. More athletes will compete as individuals in gymnastics, karate, swimming, track and field, tennis and wrestling.

The girls basketball tournament features 11 South Bay teams, headed by defending CIF 4-A champion Morningside and 3-A titlist Palos Verdes. Morningside, the top seed, returns 6-5 junior center Lisa Leslie, and Palos Verdes has 6-4 twins Heather and Heidi Burge, who will be seniors.

Morningside plays Marymount at 9 a.m. Saturday at Manual Arts High, and Palos Verdes takes on Long Beach Poly at 1 p.m. at Washington High.

Carson, last year’s Games runner-up, tops 11 area teams in the 7-on-7 touch football competition. The Colts will unveil a new run-and-shoot offense and a new quarterback, Palisades transfer Perry Klein, who is splitting time with Fred Gatlin and junior Armin Youngblood.

“The team looks very good right now,” said Carson Coach Gene Vollnogle. “We certainly have the potential to be outstanding.”

The Colts, who lost to Granada Hills in the finals of the Games and the L.A. City 4-A finals last year, have beaten Granada Hills twice in the passing league. They also have beaten Harbor College and have tied El Camino College, according to Vollnogle.

Carson plays at 8:30 a.m. Sunday at West Torrance High against the winner of Saturday’s game between Rolling Hills and Loyola.

Two all-South Bay match-ups at Redondo High are among the baseball openers Saturday. St. Bernard plays Westchester at 9 a.m., followed by El Segundo against Mary Star at noon.

Leuzinger, last season’s CIF 1-A runner-up in softball, will open the Games at 8:30 a.m. Saturday against L.A. Poly at El Camino College.

Finals in all sports will be held June 25 and 26 at El Camino College.

Formerly called the Watts-Summer Games, the L.A. Games has been a premier multisport event for Southern California high school students since 1965. The Games began that year after the Watts riots as an attempt to bring youths together through athletic competition.

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