The High Schools : Sherman Oaks CES Makes Move to Enrich Its Athletics Reputation

Eleven years after its inception and four years after the formation of a basketball team, the Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies in Reseda has become a real school.

At least that’s the evaluation--if only somewhat facetious--by Mac Becker, the school’s 55-year-old coach and founder of the basketball team. Becker has championed the school’s efforts to elevate the basketball program from the anonymity of the Magnet League to the relative big time of City Section 3-A Division status.

Becker will realize his goal next season when the Knights enter a 3-A league in Conference 6 under the City’s releaguing plan. CES will join Eagle Rock, Franklin, Wilson and Verdugo Hills. Downtown Business Magnet, another former Magnet League team, will join the conference’s other league with Belmont, Hollywood, Lincoln and Marshall.

Sherman Oaks CES also elevated its tennis and track and field teams to 3-A status in a move approved last month by the City’s Interscholastic Athletics Committee.

“This has been an emotional lift for the student body,” Becker said. “Rightly or wrongly, a lot of people judge their school by the sports program, and our kids now feel like they go to a ‘real’ school.

“Now when they go to a party they can say we play Hollywood and Eagle Rock. They may have to say we got our brains kicked in, but at least we got our brains kicked in by a school people have heard of.”

CES opened in 1977 as part of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s voluntary integration program. CES attracts students because of its wide range of electives and frequent field trips. The school, which has an enrollment of 1,550 for grades four through 12, conducts extensive music, art, speech and journalism programs.

In the past, the school has attracted top athletes. Anthony Cook, who starred at Van Nuys High and now plays basketball at Arizona, attended CES until the ninth grade. Cook--as have others--left to play at a “regular” school.

Moving to 3-A status should help keep athletes on campus, Becker said.

“Our players know they’ll be seen because of the competition,” he said. “Now scouts who may be at games recruiting our competition will see our kids, too.”

Matter of timing: While the move to 3-A status may lift students’ spirits, there is also a downside.

“We’ve been at the top of the Magnet League and now we have to start at the bottom. The competition is going to be more ferocious,” Becker said. “Maybe in a couple of years we can work our way up.”

CES has dominated the Magnet League, compiling a 65-4 record and winning titles in each of the past four seasons.

Last season, the Knights were 18-1 and placed their first player in a four-year college when team MVP Dannton Jackson accepted a scholarship to Cal State Northridge. The 6-foot, 4-inch forward averaged 29.9 points and may be one of three CES graduates playing in college next season.

Reggie Fox, a 5-7 point guard who averaged 16 assists, will play at Ventura College and Jeff Gross, a 6-6 center, has been accepted at Cal, where he will attempt to make the team as a walk-on. He averaged nine points and eight rebounds last season.

“It’s too bad we didn’t move up last season when we had some height. Next year we’re going to have to rely on quickness,” Becker said.

Returning from last season’s team are Marcus Littlejohn, a 6-1 off-guard who averaged 32 points. He also converted more than half his shots from three-point range and is a college prospect, according to Becker. Jesse Paniagua, a 6-1 forward who averaged eight points off the bench, also returns.

Becker won’t see his players until the fall because CES does not compete in a summer league. The Knights were invited to El Camino Real’s league on Monday nights but logistics proved to be a roadblock.

“Our kids come from all over the city and it’s tough getting them together,” Becker said.

Battle lines: The first Interscholastic Athletic Committee meeting of the 1988-89 school year is still three months away, but the governing body’s newest member already has disagreed with City Section Commissioner Hal Harkness.

Chatsworth baseball Coach Bob Lofrano earned a seat on the IAC after he was elected vice president of the Los Angeles High School Assn. Lofrano opposes a plan that might prevent City baseball teams from competing in winter leagues.

Because of insurance liability concerns, Harkness has suggested that the City follow the Southern Section and prohibit school representatives from coaching teams outside that sports’ season during the school year. No more than four players from one Southern Section school can compete on the same off-season team.

Currently, City coaches run baseball winter leagues, spring basketball leagues and winter volleyball leagues. Lofrano oversees baseball’s winter league, which runs from December to February and includes Southern Section teams that spread their players around.

“We’ve had winter ball since I played high school ball 20 years ago. It’s a great opportunity to see our kids play,” he said.

Lofrano said he would accept, as a last resort, a plan that would distribute players from the same school among different teams.

Glendale-bound: Notre Dame’s Bruce Heicke has decided to play at Glendale College next season. The 6-1 guard, who was a second-team Times’ All-Valley selection, averaged 19.5 points, 6 rebounds, 5 steals and 4 assists.

Heicke was unable to catch on with a four-year school and said he wants to use his freshman season at Glendale to work on his three-point shooting. He converted 53% from three-point range last season.

“I liked the program at Glendale,” he said. “I realize my ticket is the three-point shot so I have to work on that.”