Best Is Yet to Come for The Times All-Star Teams : Boys: Six of top 10 players are underclassmen. Westchester’s O’Brien is player of year and St. Monica’s Klemm is coach of year.

LeRoi O’Brien of Westchester High and Wyking Jones of St. Bernard, two of the four seniors on the 1991 Times All-Westside boys high school basketball team, will be going to NCAA Division I schools next fall, O’Brien to Pepperdine and Jones to Loyola Marymount.

O’Brien, who led Westchester to the Los Angeles City 4-A championship, is the Westside player of the year, and Leo Klemm of St. Monica, whose team won the Southern Section IV-A title and advanced to the semifinals of the Southern California Division IV championships, is coach of the year.

The other seniors on the all-star team are Jonah Naulls of Beverly Hills and Ryan Hickman of Fairfax.

The underclassmen are Alex Davis of St. Monica, James Gray of Westchester, Burt Harris of Fairfax, Shani Kennedy of Culver City, Jevon Shields of Hamilton and Tyron Thomas of Venice.

The team was selected primarily on the basis of a poll of Westside coaches. If a player was not nominated by his coach, he was not considered for the team.

The player of the year and the coach of the year from each of The Times 12 circulation areas will he honored at a breakfast and awards ceremony at 9 a.m. Sunday at the Anaheim Sheraton.

The invitational event, sponsored by The Los Angeles Times Fund, is only for the 48 winners of the highest awards for boys and girls teams from The Times circulation areas: Westside, Central Los Angeles, Orange County, San Gabriel Valley, Southeast, South Coast, Glendale, Centinela-South Bay, San Fernando Valley, San Diego County, Inland Empire (Riverside and San Bernardino counties) and Ventura County.

Naulls and Hickman are the only repeat selections from the 1990 team.

A late bloomer at Westchester, O’Brien was not much of a scorer during the regular season, averaging 11.9. But he also averaged 10.5 rebounds and three blocked shots and he increased his averages to 20.7 points and four blocks in the postseason, including a first-round loss to Long Beach Jordan in the Southern California Division I playoffs.

Westchester Coach Edward Azzam said that before the playoffs many defenses “collapsed on (O’Brien) and played zones that denied him the opportunity to score.”

“But the kids went to him in the playoffs because they had confidence in him, and he dominated the boards in the playoffs, where he got a lot of his points.

“LeRoi is a very unselfish player and he didn’t need the ball for us to win. He is an excellent player, not so much for his numbers, but for providing leadership. He (did) everything I asked him to do all year.”

When Klemm came to St. Monica in 1983, the boys basketball program was in the doldrums. But he is 149-67 at the school. St. Monica’s only other Southern Section championship was in 1979, when scoring phenomenon Leon Wood was a senior.

Klemm’s Mariner teams have reached the playoff semifinals four of the past five seasons, and in three of the past four seasons, played at the Southern Section’s highest level of competition. When teams were classified according to enrollment this past season, St. Monica, with an enrollment of 510 boys and girls, was placed in the IV-A division.

This season Klemm accomplished much more than he usually does because his top two players from the 1989-90 team did not return after transferring to other schools. He has coached several players who have done well at NCAA Division I colleges, including Brian Williams of Arizona, Jason Matthews of Pittsburgh and Earl Duncan, who played for Syracuse and Rutgers.

Klemm, also dean of students and vice principal at St. Monica, has coached previously at now-defunct Lennox High in the South Bay and in Pennsylvania and Texas.

The rest of the team:

Davis--Only a sophomore, he was the driving force behind St. Monica’s success. At a guard position, he averaged 16.7 points, 5.3 assists and 4.5 rebounds.

Gray--A top scorer and playmaker for Westchester, he averaged 16.4 points and four assists. He was mentioned prominently by opposing coaches in the balloting.

Harris--Opposing coaches praised Harris for his scoring and leadership. He averaged 21.7 points and 2.7 assists.

Hickman--A fierce rebounder and inside scorer, Hickman averaged 14.3 rebounds and 16.4 points.

Jones--A strong rival to O’Brien for Westside player of the year, Jones averaged 21 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots.

Kennedy--He averaged 19.5 points, 12.4 rebounds and 3.1 blocked shots for Culver City.

Naulls--One of the Southern Section’s most productive shooters from three-point range, Naulls made 77 three-point baskets and averaged 25.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and four assists.

Shields--The top scorer for a strong Hamilton team, Shields averaged 18 points for Coach Dave Uyeshima.

Thomas--He was Venice’s leading scorer. He averaged 19.5 points and 9.8 rebounds.

Honorable mention:

Brentwood--Kevin Rille, Scott Clarey, Ricky David.

Crossroads--Kahlil Allen, Eric Mobley.

Hamilton--Dorian Dan.

Daniel Murphy--Ryan Espiritu Santo, Gus Mendoza.

St. Monica--Keith Walk-Green, Mike Avery.

Santa Monica--Jason Dixon, Trenton Jackson.

University--Duahn Smith, Renaldi Thruston.

Venice--Mike Demers, Tracey Mills.

The Kings of The Court

Name School Year Height Average Alex Davis St. Monica Sophomore 6-0 16.7 Ryan Hickman Fairfax Senior 6-6 16.4 James Gray Westchester Junior 6-1 16.6 Burt R. Harris Jr. Fairfax Junior 6-0 21.7 Wyking Jones St. Bernard Senior 6-7 22 Shani Kennedy Culver City Junior 6-7 19.5 Jonah Naulls Beverly Hills Senior 6-5 25.7 LeRoi O’Brien Westchester Senior 6-8 11.9 Jevon Shields Hamilton Junior 6-1 18 Tyron Thomas Venice Junior 6-3 9.5

Coaches of the Year

BOYS: Leo Klemm, ST. MONICA (19-9)