Neighborhood Players Go Their Separate Ways

In keeping with Southern California mobility, four of the Southland’s best high school basketball players grew up within a bounce pass of one another in the Inglewood area--and each player attends a different high school.

Mitchell Butler of North Hollywood Oakwood, Zan Mason of Westchester, Harold Miner of Inglewood and Ed Stokes of Playa del Rey St. Bernard are neighborhood friends who share another common thread--all have signed with Pacific 10 schools. Miner is headed for USC, Butler and Mason for UCLA, and Stokes for Arizona.

According to Butler, all grew up within 10 minutes of each other.

“Miner lives about 3 or 4 minutes away, and Mason and Stokes live about 5 or 10 minutes away,” Butler said. “Only in L.A.”

But each took his own path.

Butler attends Oakwood, a small private Southern Section school of 220 students in North Hollywood that emphasizes academics and plays basketball at the 1-A Division level. Butler was guided to the school by former Laker Happy Hairston.

Mason attends Westchester, a 4-A Division school in the City Section.

Miner attends Inglewood, a public Southern Section school that plays at the 5-A level.

Stokes chose St. Bernard, a parochial Southern Section school with 1,250 students. The Vikings are a 3-A school that will play at the 5-AA level in the playoffs under the Southern Section’s newly instituted postseason structure that groups teams by enrollment only.

Of the four, the 6-foot 5-inch Butler has had the most difficult senior season so far. Oakwood, last season’s Southern Section Small Schools champion, is playing at the 1-A level this season and Butler has not posted the same numbers he did in 1987-88, when he averaged 31 points and 16 rebounds and was the Small Schools player of the year.

But the promotion to the 1-A level, he said, is not the primary reason for his troubles. It was a move of another sort that threw him off balance.

“It was the move to point guard as much as anything, having to distribute the ball and everything,” he said.

Butler, who played center the 3 previous seasons at Oakwood, now is in charge of running the offense. The move by Coach Roz Goldenberg was designed in part to help ease Butler’s transition to the college game, where he figures to play off-guard.

“It’s been a good experience for me,” Butler said.

The officers of the Southern Section’s Executive Committee will conduct a hearing next Monday to determine whether Oxnard Santa Clara Coach Lou Cvijanovich and his boys’ basketball team will be penalized for withdrawing from the South Coast Holiday Christmas Tournament at Costa Mesa Estancia High in December.

Santa Clara (15-3), the Southern Section’s top-ranked team in the 2-A Division, forfeited 2 consolation-round games in the tournament after Cvijanovich pulled his team. He complained about the officiating during a 39-38 second-round loss to Huntington Beach Edison. It was the Saints’ first and only non-forfeit defeat of the season.

The move apparently violated a written contract that obligated the team to play 4 games in the 16-team tournament.

The Southern Section will hear testimony from Cvijanovich and tournament directors Chuck and Art Perry. The 5-member panel then will send a recommendation to the executive committee, which is expected to rule by Feb. 16.

According to Southern Section rules, the maximum penalty for failure to play a game without securing an honorable release would be the school’s suspension from membership. Cvijanovich, who has coached basketball since 1957 and has compiled a 586-198 record, also could be suspended.

It appears that the wrong school dropped from the Del Rey League when the San Fernando Valley League was formed this school year. Previously, both Mission Hills Alemany and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame competed in the Del Rel League, which plays at the Division I level in football and baseball.

Both schools considered fleeing to the San Fernando Valley League, a Division VII entry, but Alemany officials decided to stay put. The move looked good when Alemany won its first 3 football games last fall, including a 17-7 victory over Notre Dame, but the schools have moved in opposite directions since.

Alemany lost 6 of its last 7 football games, while Notre Dame won the San Fernando Valley League title and was 8-3 overall. The trend has continued into the basketball season. The Indians are 3-14 overall with 1 victory in 5 league games. Notre Dame (10-8) moved to the top of the San Fernando Valley League with a 4-0 record after Saturday’s 87-71 victory over Bell-Jeff.

When Notre Dame met Alemany in a nonleague game earlier this month, the Knights showed little mercy, winning, 101-40. It may get worse for Alemany before it gets better. Notre Dame, which includes Chicago White Sox pitcher Jack McDowell among its alumni, traditionally fields its best teams in baseball.

Add Alemany: Basketball Coach Rocky Moore’s rookie season has started to haunt him. The good-natured coach claimed he had a nightmare about tonight’s game against Loyola (16-2), the Del Rey’s first-place team and ranked No. 6 in the Southern Section’s 5-AA Division.

“I’m petrified of playing them,” Moore said. “I dreamed we got beat, 150-2.”

In Moore’s nightmare, his team’s only points were scored on a bank shot by seldom-used Matt Garland. Said Moore: “I was yelling that it was a 3-point shot, but the referee told me that he stepped on the line.”

The City Section has released its baseball scheduling format as part of the City’s sweeping releaguing plan that went into effect this school year. The playoff structure also has been altered under the new format, which was adopted last fall on a 1-year trial basis by administrators acting on the advice of a panel of area coaches.

In a conference of 2 4-team leagues, for example, teams will face league opponents 3 times and conference opponents twice in a 17-game league schedule. Teams will play regular-season games Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Under the new plan, teams will face each other twice in the same week, at home and away.

“Now a guy with one great pitcher can’t ride him all the way through the schedule,” said Coach Tom Lucero of Van Nuys Grant, who admittedly used right-hander that way Rodney Beck in Grant’s drive to the 1986 4-A title.

In addition, league foes will face one another for the first 6 games, beginning in mid-March. Teams will then play conference opponents for the next 8 games and conclude the regular season with single games against their 3 league rivals--for a total of 17 games.

The playoffs also have been restructured. Sixteen teams will qualify, including automatic berths for first- and second-place teams from each of the 6 4-A leagues. Two additional teams--those with the best records from among the 6 third-place finishers--also automatically qualify. The remaining 4 third-place teams will play in wild-card games to determine the final 2 playoff teams.

TIMES’ BASKETBALL POLLS

Through Jan. 22

BOYS

City

No., School, League Record 1. Manual Arts, Metro-4A 16-0 2. Cleveland, North Valley-4A 15-2 3. Westchester, Metro-4A 12-3 4. Crenshaw, Southern-4A 12-2 5. Taft, North Valley-4A 14-2 6. University, Western-3A 11-5 7. Los Angeles, Western-3A 10-7 8. Fremont, Central-3A 16-3 9. Palisades, Metro-4A 8-7 10. Carson, Pacific-4A 9-7 10. Washington, Southern-4A 10-7

Southern Section

No., School, League Record 1. Saddleback, Sea View-5AA 18-1 2. Mater Dei, Angelus-5AA 20-2 3. Pasadena, Pacific-5A 16-2 4. Loyola, Del Rey-5AA 16-2 5. Irvine, South Coast-5A 18-3 6. Lakewood, Moore-5AA 16-5 7. Capistrano Valley, South Coast-5A 15-4 8. St. Bernard, Camino Real-5AA 18-2 9. San Bernardino, San Andreas-4AA 20-0 10. Glendora, Baseline-4AA 18-1 11. Millikan, Moore-5AA 17-4 12. Santa Clara, Frontier-2A 15-3 13. Rolling Hills, Bay-3A 16-3 14. St. Paul, Angelus-4A 15-6 15. St. Monica, Camino Real-5AA 13-4

GIRLS

City

No., School, League Record 1. Crenshaw, Southern-4A 16-1 2. Carson, Pacific-4A 12-3 3. Reseda, Mid Valley-4A 10-3 4. North Hollywood, Mid Valley-4A 12-3 5. Washington, Southern-4A 13-3 6. Dorsey, Southern-4A 13-4 7. Palisades, Metro-4A 11-4 8. El Camino Real, North Valley-4A 9-5 9. Fremont, Central-4A 8-6 10. Gardena, Pacific-4A 7-4

Southern Section

No., School, League Record 1. Morningside, Ocean-5AA 17-1 2. Chino, Baseline-5A 18-0 3. Brea-Olinda, Orange-3A 16-2 4. Buena, Channel-5A 13-2 5. Hart, Foothill-5A 16-2 6. Santa Barbara, Channel-5A 12-5 7. Palos Verdes, Bay-4A 16-3 8. Santa Clara, Frontier-2A 17-1 9. Muir, Pacific-4A 14-3 10. Bell Gardens, Whitmont-5AA 15-2 11. Fontana, Citrus Belt-5AA 17-1 12. Los Altos, Sierra-4A 17-1 13. Katella, Empire-4A 17-3 14. Ocean View, Sunset-5A 20-2 15. Fountain Valley, Sunset-5AA 14-7 15. Ontario, Hacienda-5A 17-1