THE HIGH SCHOOLS : Notebook : Herrick at Odds With Playoff Pairing

Obviously, Greg Herrick is not one to enjoy a high-risk gamble.

The Hart High coach is not pleased with his team’s first-round bye in the Southern Section 4-A Division playoffs. Hart (13-10), which finished second in the Foothill League, on Friday will play at Pasadena (21-2), the top-seeded team. Pasadena’s only losses were to Manual Arts and La Canada, prompting Herrick to give his Indians a “million-to-one” chance of an upset.

“The best team in the draw is supposed to play the worst team,” Herrick said. “We are not the worst team.”

Hart finished the season with three consecutive wins, including a decisive 94-79 victory over league champion Burroughs. That finish rates Hart a better draw, Herrick believes.

“They try and mask the bye like it’s a reward,” he said. “I’d rather play. Give me a game where if we get beat, we get beat and if we win, we can say we won a playoff game. But the first game we run right into a buzz saw.

“We’re going to get a bunch of guys in shirts that say, ‘Bye’ on them and play them on Wednesday. Then, if we win, we can say we beat ‘Bye’ in the first round.”

Pre-playoff playoff: When Birmingham and Poly meet in an East Valley League playoff game at Monroe High at 3 this afternoon, it will be the fifth time this season that the teams have played.

Poly (10-10, 5-5 in league play) won three of the four encounters, but the Parrots were routed by the Braves, 86-52, in Friday’s league finale, forcing today’s playoff game.

The winner will play Los Angeles in the first round of the City Section 3-A Division playoffs Friday. Poly Coach Jay Werner expects a different Parrot team to take the court today.

“We weren’t playing like a team last week,” Werner said. “We were playing like a bunch of individuals. We had two bad weeks of practices and it showed. We had a good one Monday so I expect us to play well.”

The Parrots’ early season mastery of Birmingham (9-11, 5-5) could have compounded their woes last week.

“Psychologically, that might have hurt us,” Werner said. “It’s hard to get up for a team that you’ve beaten three times.”

Add Birmingham: Although it took consecutive victories over Sylmar and Poly to give the Braves life, Coach Elliot Turret believes that a 49-40 loss to league champion Grant on Feb. 3 was the key to their playoff run.

“We didn’t beat Grant,” he said. “But we played about as well as we possibly could against them. The kids did exactly what I asked of them. Since that game, we’ve played pretty well. We’ve played with a lot of intensity.”

The improved play was evident in the win last Friday when Birmingham outscored Poly, 53-19, in the second half.

Said Turret: “I didn’t have to say much to them. They just went out there and did it.”

Taking out the sting: Don’t get Camarillo Coach John Harbour wrong, but his basketball world won’t end if the Scorpions are unable to advance far in the Southern Section 4-AA playoffs.

“Frankly,” he said, “I’m a firm believer that you have to have playoff experience. So anything from here is giving my team playoff experience for next year. I may be selling my team short, but I am a firm believer in the experience factor.”

That is not to say Camarillo won’t be prepared Friday, when the Marmonte League co-champion plays the Crespi-Warren winner. “By game time we’ll be ready to play,” Harbour said.

In limbo: No decision has been made regarding the status of Essam Ibrahim, the Westlake basketball player accused of sparking a postgame brawl when he taunted Thousand Oaks player Todd Anderson after a game last Wednesday.

Ibrahim was suspended from school for one day and did not play in Westlake’s game Friday against Channel Islands. The Warriors play host to Whittier today in the first round of the Southern Section 4-AA playoffs. Westlake Athletic Director Bob Fisher said that Ibrahim, a reserve guard, probably would not play in that game.

Coming back for more: The signs seemed to be there.

Don Salado, who already had served a 15-year stint as Channel Islands’ basketball coach, returned on an interim basis this season to replace the departed Mike Prewitt.

The Raiders lost all but one of their 20 games and were winless in 12 Marmonte League games. So, goodby Don? Had enough?

Don’t believe it.

“I’ve been getting my butt beat so bad, I want to come back,” said Salado, who coached Channel Islands to consecutive Southern Section 2-A titles in the mid-70s. “This year I just got beat on.”

Two weeks ago, Salado said that he was 75% sure he would return. This week, he’s almost certain.

“For my own personal satisfaction, I want to come back,” he said.

Salado added he is aware that Prewitt, who has since returned to the school, would like to return as coach.

“Doggone it,” Salado said. “I think I let him down.”

Royalty again: It has been 17 years since Royal last made the playoffs and about half that long for Newbury Park, so their reaction to the new Southern Section playoff format was predictable.

The top three teams in each league automatically qualify for the playoffs. Teams that finish with records of .500 or better are eligible for consideration as at-large entries. Royal (12-2 overall, 6-6 in league play) finished fourth in the Marmonte League, the Panthers (13-10 overall, 4-8) finished sixth.

Joe Malkinson managed to coach the Highlanders into postseason play in only his second season.

“It’s gratifying to make it in just two years,” he said. “I didn’t know if we would make it, but that was our goal. It was by the skin of our teeth, but we got there.”

Newbury Park Coach Ken Barone appreciates the experience that playoffs will afford his team, which started the season 6-0. The Panther team is dominated by underclassmen.

“That was one of our goals--to reach the playoffs,” he said. “We’ve accomplished that, so ‘The Park’ is going in the right direction. And it means a lot more down the road than it does now.”

Small consolation: After his team’s 59-55 loss to Western Christian last week, L. A. Baptist Coach Maury Neville sweated out the Southern Section’s announcement of the basketball playoff brackets. He feared that the Knights’ streak of eight consecutive playoff appearances would end.

L. A. Baptist posted a 17-7 overall record but finished fourth in the Alpha League with a 6-4 record. The Knights received an at-large berth and will play at Faith Baptist tonight.

Ineligible: Crescenta Valley point guard Raffie Eskandarian, who averaged a team-high 20 points and 5.6 assists a game, was ruled academically ineligible last Thursday and will not play when the Falcons play host to Newbury Park in the first round of the Southern Section playoffs today.

Winter league: When it hasn’t been snowing, Chatsworth baseball Coach Bob Lofrano has utilized his new transfer talent--seniors Jason Evans and Eric Johnson.

Evans, a switch-hitting shortstop and pitcher, transferred from Loyola. Johnson, a switch-hitting catcher, enrolled at Chatsworth after his family moved from Michigan. Lofrano said that their addition to the Chancellors’ already strong lineup should earn Chatsworth a spot on USA Today’s national Top-30 high school baseball poll. Lofrano said he received a call from a USA reporter last week.

Staff writers Tim Brown, Steve Elling, Sam Farmer, Vince Kowalick, John Ortega and Rocky Pinheiro contributed to this notebook.