PREP SPORTS : Controversy Nothing New for City Football Playoffs

The new-look L.A. City football playoffs will start tonight amid old-look controversy.

District officials have long tried to devise a format that will please coaches, but the latest attempt doesn’t seem to have done that.

In this season’s realignment, for instance, all 12 teams in the 4-A Division qualified for the playoffs, which would have worked better with only eight teams. Included were Crenshaw (2-7), Chatsworth (2-7) and Reseda Cleveland (0-8-1), the bottom three seeded teams that most coaches figured should not have been included. The top four seeded teams--Carson, Wilmington Banning, Dorsey and Granada Hills--got first-round byes to make the brackets work properly.

Then Cleveland, devastated by injuries and academic ineligibility, decided Monday to forfeit its game against Woodland Hills Taft.

Last season, there were 16 teams in 4-A and 12 made the playoffs. The Southern League, which is in the same conference as Carson, Banning and Dorsey, was moved to 3-A this year. The 3-A Division now has 37 teams, and 16 qualified for the playoffs.

The Palos Verdes High girls’ tennis team dethroned two-time defending champion Corona del Mar in the Southern Section Division 4-A championship match Tuesday at the Claremont Tennis Club.

The match ended in a tie, 9-9, but Palos Verdes (21-0) was awarded the victory on games, 77-67.

In 3-A, Westlake High of Westlake Village relied on strong doubles play and upset top-seeded Calabasas, 10-8, and in 2-A, Sunny Hills defeated top-seeded Los Alamitos, 12-6. In 1-A, San Luis Obispo defeated Cate, 11-7. Brentwood turned back La Mirada, 10-8, for the Small Schools title.