L. A. Games Unfold With Cleveland Threat to Repeat in Basketball

Cleveland High Coach Bob Braswell fully endorses the spirit of the L. A. Games, which began in the wake of the 1965 Watts riots as a vehicle to promote understanding among the city’s youth through athletics.

The sports festival, formerly called the L. A. Watts-Summer Games, has mushroomed into a unique multisport competition for Southern California high school students, and this year’s event is expected to include more than 11,000 athletes in 13 sports.

The 21st annual installment of the Games runs today and Sunday at 22 locations and concludes next weekend. The finals in most sports are scheduled for June 26 at El Camino College.

The showcase event in the festival is a 128-team boys’ basketball tournament and Braswell’s Cleveland team enters as the defending champion.

As do many coaches in the tournament, Braswell stresses the themes of friendship and understanding that accompany the Games, but he also doesn’t mind sending opponents home with a sound defeat.

“This is one of the biggest tournaments in the country and people hear about it all over,” he said. “This is a great opportunity to give your kids a chance to play. But every time we step out on the court we want to play our best. Winning last year was a big thing for us and we want to win again.”

Cleveland is talent-rich this year and its trip to the winner’s circle may have been made easier when Crenshaw withdrew from the tournament. Crenshaw, which has won five of the past seven L. A. Games titles and was seeded No. 1 this year, bowed out because many of its players have conflicts with summer basketball camps.

The L. A. Junior Chamber of Commerce, which sponsors the Games, had no trouble replacing Crenshaw, plugging Cypress into the bracket. The waiting list for the basketball tournament has grown to more than 60 teams, according to Chamber spokesman Julius Mason.

“This already is the biggest high school tournament in the country and we could blow this sucker right out of the water,” he said. “We could go to a field of 200 if we could afford it. But with expenses for renting the sites and paying the officials and giving out T-shirts to the athletes, we think we’re at our limit now.”

Of the 128 teams, Cleveland rates as one of the favorites along with Manual Arts, the state champion last winter. Cleveland, which lost in the first round of the playoffs, still has ample talent returning from a team that posted an 18-4 record. Cleveland opens the tournament against Warren at 4 p.m. today at Dorsey High.

Returning from last season’s team are Adonis Jordan, one of the Valley’s top guards, and 6-5 Lucious Harris, 6-6 Warren Harrell and 6-0 Andre Chevalier, all of whom played extensively last season. Cleveland also picked up transfers Brandon Battle (6-6, from Canoga Park), Gilbert Ruff (6-7, from Masada) and Eddie Hill, a 6-0 guard who averaged 16.9 points last season at Burroughs.

This year’s team adds an ingredient missing in Braswell’s three previous seasons: height. But despite a roster that may include as many as six players 6-5 or taller, the Cavaliers’ style of pressure defense and up-tempo offense remains unchanged.

“A coach has to change his style to suit his talent, but I still believe we can play the running game,” Braswell said. “We have good athletes who can run the floor. We have a lot of new faces and they’re not used to playing pressure defense, so it will be a learning process of teaching them our philosophy,” he said.

Other strong Valley-area entries in the field include Taft, Grant, Granada Hills, Kennedy, Notre Dame and El Camino Real.

Another Valley-area defending champion in the Games is Granada Hills, which won last year’s football tournament. Under passing-league rules, teams of seven players each compete without pads and they pass exclusively.

Jeremy Leach and Sean Brown shared the MVP award at last year’s Games, which foreshadowed the regular season when the Highlanders upset Carson to win the City Section 4-A Division title. Leach, Brown and the remainder of the team’s starters at the skill positions have graduated.

Coach Darryl Stroh will field an inexperienced team Sunday at 10:45 a.m. at West Torrance High. Granada Hills has a first-round bye and plays the winner of today’s Narbonne-University game.

The only competition scheduled in the Valley involves baseball and boys’ soccer. A baseball tripleheader is scheduled at Grant High. Grant and Westlake play at 9 a.m., followed by Chatsworth and Oxnard at noon and Alemany and San Fernando at 3 p.m.

The first four rounds of the boys’ soccer tournament are scheduled for the Granada Hills Recreation Center. Play runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. today and Sunday. The final is scheduled for June 26 at El Camino College.