The High Schools : El Camino Real Finds Needed Help at Guard in One Fell Swoop

For 14 games, the El Camino Real High coaching staff looked for a helping hand. Simply put, the Conquistadore guards needed an assist.

“It’s no secret,” Coach Mike McNulty has said all season. “It is our weak spot.”

What did he need? To start, better ballhandling, more points and more defense. Based on what he saw in Friday night’s game, McNulty may have found his man.

In only his second start, Ken Findley, a 6-foot-1 senior, scored 13 points and added eight assists and five steals in El Camino Real’s 70-42 win at San Fernando.

By one account, the audience response ranged from “Oooohs” to “Ahhhhsome.” It may not have been a firestorm by some standards, but compared to previous play by the guards, Findley lit up the place.

“We needed a spark,” assistant Jeff Davis said. “He made a couple of Michael Jordan swoops through the air and the whole gym went ‘Oooooh.’ ”

So how did someone who elicits that kind of crowd response go virtually unnoticed for two-thirds of the season? Perhaps because this is Findley’s first full season. He was academically ineligible his ninth- and 10th-grade years. Findley then played in three junior varsity games last season after again missing the first semester because he was academically ineligible. He has remained eligible this season.

“He’s worked his way into the lineup,” Davis said. “He’s been just what we needed.”

Yet, like the other El Camino Real guards, Findley may need to work on consistency. In his first start, against Canoga Park on Jan. 27, he scored just two points.

Add El Camino Real: For the second time in two weeks, the Conquistadores will face Chatsworth in a West Valley League showdown.

On Jan. 25, Chatsworth defeated El Camino Real, 60-57, at Chatsworth in a game Davis matter-of-factly called “a nightmare.”

Among the chilling facts: Senior center Jason Steele did not play after he was suspended for the game over his involvement in an on-campus fight. . . . Senior forward Brent Lofton fouled out. . . . And worst of all? After a timeout, Chancellor guard Rick Garrick scored on an uncontested layup to give Chatsworth a 58-54 lead in the final minute as El Camino Real failed to break from its team huddle in time.

El Camino Real (7-8, 4-4 in league play) will play host to Chatsworth (12-7, 4-4) in today’s 4 p.m. game, which will guarantee the winner at least a share of the West Valley title.

The Big Game, 1990-style: When Crespi running back Russell White verbally committed to attend Cal on Tuesday, he also may have indirectly added fuel to an already spirited Pacific 10 Conference rivalry.

Crespi will soon have three players on football scholarship at Stanford, which plays Cal annually in a battle dubbed “The Big Game.”

Offensive lineman John Carpenter, a 1987 Crespi graduate, and running back J. J. Lasley (1988) are on scholarship at Stanford. Ron Redell, who started at quarterback for Crespi this year, will sign with the Cardinal today.

Redell reportedly fired the first salvo.

“They’re already at it,” said Crespi assistant Joel Wilker. “He (Redell) told Russell, ‘Hey, we’ll only live a few miles away. We’ll have to come down and kick your butts.’ ”

Attention Taft and Kennedy: If it was difficult to watch Cleveland win the first time around, wait for the sequel.

This may be tune-up time for some, but Cleveland Coach Bob Braswell said that because the playoffs start next week, he has told the team it has rounded the final curve and is in the home stretch.

Any chance that Cleveland will try to post some big numbers this week?

Really big ones?

“Definitely,” Braswell said. “It’s take-no-prisoners time and full speed ahead. I can’t worry about what others think now, we have to think playoffs from here on out.”

Cleveland can win the North Valley League with a win over Taft at 4 p.m. today at Cleveland. The Cavaliers will play host to Kennedy in a regular-season finale Friday at 7.

Add Taft and Kennedy: Last week, Granada Hills Coach Bob Johnson was hardly ebullient when he learned that the City Section 4-A Division playoff structure had been expanded to allow last-place teams into postseason play. Johnson’s rationale was sound enough: A last-place team can expect to face a team such as Crenshaw, Manual Arts or Westchester in the opening round next week.

A few days later, Johnson optimistically says that the point is moot. Granada Hills, which has lost four consecutive North Valley League games to fall to last in league play at 3-5, will not have to play any of those teams, he asserts.

“Whether it’s Crenshaw or whoever doesn’t really matter,” he said. “Because we’re going to win our last two games. We are not going to finish in last place.”

Granada Hills plays host to Kennedy at 7 tonight and Taft on Friday at 7.

How soon they forget: Jason Bromberg, a former starting point guard at Taft, held the school single-game assist mark (17) that current point guard Dedan Thomas broke last year with 20 assists in a win over Cleveland.

Taft Coach Jim Woodard said that he didn’t mean to slight Bromberg last week in discussing Thomas’ contributions of two seasons ago. Bromberg was a senior starter in 1986-87 who became ill during league play. Thomas, then a sophomore, filled in more than capably, scoring 10 points and recording 12 assists in his first varsity start.

“It bothered me that I left the wrong impression,” Woodard said. “Jason didn’t score a lot of points, but he ran the offense.”

Said Thomas last season, his first as a full-time starter: “I learned a lot from (Bromberg). He was very fundamentally sound. He didn’t do anything fancy, just got the job done.”

The beat goes on: Although its coach and three best players moved on, Simi Valley’s basketball program is not missing a beat. The Pioneers are in position to win their fourth consecutive Marmonte League title, this one under first-year Coach Dean Bradshaw.

Simi Valley’s junior varsity, coached by Steve Johnson, clinched its fifth consecutive league title Friday.

Credit earned: Simi Valley center Mike Wawryk began playing so well midway through the Marmonte League season that Bradshaw had no choice but to insert him into the starting lineup. However, Kenny Hood, the 6-4 forward who found himself replaced, has not been forgotten.

In fact, Bradshaw made a point of praising Hood after the Pioneers’ 61-59 victory over Westlake on Friday night.

“I give Kenny a lot of credit for what he’s done the past three ballgames,” Bradshaw said. “He’s accepted the challenge of a different role without pouting. He’s sucked up the ego part of it completely.”

Hood scored a total of 18 points against Royal and Westlake last week.

J Brothers: Canyon’s backcourt duo of Jamil Austin and Jermaine Nixon has so been dubbed.

Austin is averaging a team-high 15.1 points a game, Nixon 10.3.

Add J: Austin has had his share of distractions.

Last month, Austin, 18, along with three others, was arrested on suspicion of stealing more than $1,200 in telephone equipment from a Canyon Country hardware store.

While awaiting his arraignment March 9, Austin has tried to conduct business as usual. It has not been easy. During Canyon’s Golden League game at Burroughs of Ridgecrest on Friday, Burroughs fans waved telephones in an effort to taunt Austin.

“Jamil just smiled, but it’s gotta hurt,” Canyon Coach Greg Hayes said. “I think Jamil won the crowd over, though, with his play. They almost felt bad for mocking him.”

Injury report: Crespi point guard Chris McGee dislocated his right shoulder in a fall and will not practice this week. McGee, the Celts’ leading scorer (13.3 points a game), might be used sparingly against Loyola on Friday, Coach Paul Muff said.

Staff writers Tim Brown, Steve Elling, Vince Kowalick and John Lynch contributed to this notebook.