The High Schools : Diminutive Calderon Begins to Size Up Potential College Career

Exactly how far can a 5-foot-8 point guard expect to extend his basketball career?

“I’d like to go to college,” Marnie Calderon of Burroughs said. “But the letters haven’t been coming.”

Calderon might not be hearing from colleges because he is only a junior. But the three-point baskets have kept coming--at a rate of one in every two attempts.

Calderon, who is averaging 10.3 points a game, has made 43 of 86 three-point shots, including four in a game three times.

“Some of his threes have pretty much been NBA threes,” Burroughs Coach Ira Sollod said of Calderon’s cruise missiles. “A lot of it is just coming down and pulling up. He’s got the green light.

“Last year he was only a fair shooter. But he’s really come on.”

Calderon’s contribution this season is one reason Burroughs clinched its first Foothill League championship since 1968.

Calderon, however, is far from clinching a scholarship. The shot is there. And so are the grades; he maintains a 4.0 grade-point average.

But college scouts, Calderon said, might be looking over his head.

“Right now,” Calderon said, “height doesn’t really matter. But in college it might. I’d really like to play basketball if possible. But I study hard, so if I can’t play basketball, I’ll go to a UC school anyway.

“A future is a future, right?”

Cleveland, as in clank: As far as sustained excellence goes, few would argue that Cleveland has had the best boys’ team in the Valley area for a number of years. The Cavaliers, 18-2 this season and ranked No. 2 in the state, have played in the City Section 4-A Division final twice in three seasons.

For what it’s worth, here is a report card on recent play:

Defense: Rates an A. The toughest press around.

Offense: B+. Simply explosive at times.

Talent: A-. Ranks among the City’s best.

Free throws: C. As in clank.

And the latter is no secret.

Cleveland Coach Bob Braswell attended the UCLA-Oregon State game at Pauley Pavilion on Sunday. While there, he watched a familiar face--Cleveland graduate Trevor Wilson, now a starting forward for the Bruins--do some familiar things.

Despite finishing with 26 points, Wilson made only six of 12 free throws.

For Braswell, watching players miss free throws is fast becoming routine. Cleveland players, historically, have not been good free-throw shooters, he said. The Cavaliers’ last loss, a 63-62 tournament loss to St. Joseph of Alameda in December, was due in part to an inability to convert one-and-one attempts, Braswell said.

Cleveland’s white-line fever has become a running gag. Even Wilson realizes that something is, well, amiss.

“The first thing he said after the (Oregon State) game is, ‘I can’t make ‘em because I’m from Cleveland,” Braswell said. “I don’t know what it is, but sometimes we just don’t seem to shoot them very well here.”

I was only kidding: San Fernando Coach Dick Crowell groused aloud to Canoga Park Coach Joey Nakasone before their teams met in a West Valley League game Wednesday. Both teams were suffering from late-season attrition.

San Fernando, in fact, was down to seven players. Canoga Park was in similar straits.

“They only had eight guys,” Crowell said. “I told Nakasone, ‘No fair, you’re one up on me. That’s one too many.’ ”

Minutes later, it was all even at seven each.

Canoga Park’s Mario Rodriguez fell during a warm-up drill and suffered a fractured ankle. Crowell said that a Canoga Park statistician apparently wandered under the basket during layup drills and Rodriguez landed on him.

Add San Fernando: The Tigers defeated Canoga Park, 79-47, to remain in contention for a playoff berth. Third-place San Fernando (9-12, 3-6 in league play) will play host to second-place Chatsworth (11-8, 4-5) at 7 tonight.

If San Fernando wins, the same teams will meet in a playoff for second place next week, Crowell said. Only the first- and second-place teams in the City 3-A advance to the playoffs.

Does San Fernando--which has played inconsistently all season and lost two starters last week when Crowell kicked them off the team for rules violations--still have a fighting chance?

“We’re playing the theme to ‘Rocky’, “ Crowell said. “We’re on the ropes, but we’re still trying.”

End around: Cleveland running back-safety Sean Burwell, who had orally committed to attend Iowa State, pulled an end-around on Wednesday and instead signed with Oregon.

Burwell, a Times All-Valley selection, said he had been recruited by Oregon all along but that the Ducks’ running back coach, Gary Campbell, told Burwell he must redshirt his first year. It fast became a point of contention, Burwell said.

So Burwell committed to Iowa State--for a matter of minutes.

“(Campbell) called me later that day to tell me I’d made a big mistake,” Burwell said. “He said I’d have a good opportunity to play at Oregon.”

Campbell visited Burwell at the player’s home last Friday and told Burwell he didn’t have to redshirt if he didn’t want to.

“That was the main thing,” Burwell said Thursday, “I didn’t want to redshirt. They told me at first that I would, but then they changed their mind.”

As did Burwell, who rushed for 1,145 yards last season. Whatever Campbell said worked--Burwell informed Oregon of his decision Saturday.

Come one, come all: Five of the Marmonte League’s seven teams are still in contention for playoff berths in their respective divisions.

Simi Valley (16-8, 9-3), which is guaranteed at least a co-championship; Camarillo (16-6, 8-3), which could tie the Pioneers with a win at Newbury Park tonight; and Westlake (14-10, 7-4), which clinched third place Wednesday, are locks because they finished in the top three.

On the bubble are Royal (11-12, 6-5), which needs to beat Thousand Oaks tonight to finish at .500, and Newbury Park. The Panthers are 4-7 in league play, but a strong nonleague showing and 13-9 overall record might be good enough for a postseason invitation.

Rained out: Grant’s alumni baseball game, scheduled for Feb. 11, has been rescheduled because of poor weather. The game will be held March 12 at 11 a.m. at Grant.

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