Area Schools Get a Chance to Show Stuff in L.A. Games : High schools: Twenty-two South Bay schools are entered in the competition, which starts this weekend.

Twenty-two South Bay schools, including Westchester High, the top-seeded boys’ basketball team, will be competing this weekend in the 24th annual L.A. Watts Summer Games.

The games begin Saturday at various Southern California sites. Championships are scheduled to be played the following weekend.

Twenty high schools sent a total of 152 athletes to the first Summer Games in 1968. In 1991 more than 12,000 individuals representing 300 schools will compete.

The Games were started after the 1965 Watts riots as an attempt to bring youth together through athletic competition.

“A vital part of the whole thing is the good will and camaraderie that exists among all the competitors,” Morningside girls’ basketball Coach Ron Randle said. “Plus, you have a whole mesh of teams from Timbuktu to Walla Walla and it gives you a chance to see how your club measures up to some of those.”

Once again, basketball is the showcase event at the Games.

The 1991-92 basketball season promises to be a good one for defending City 4-A Division boys’ champion Westchester, coached by Ed Azzam. The Comets, who lost only one player to graduation, received a first-round bye and will open play Sunday at 9 a.m. in their gym.

Southern Section 3-A runner-up Morningside, the fifth-seeded team, also has a bye.

Fourteen other South Bay teams begin play Saturday. El Camino College, Inglewood, Westchester and Banning will serve as boys’ basketball venues.

The Palos Verdes girls’ basketball team finished 33-2 and won the Southern Section 3-AA and State Division III titles in the 1990-91 season. This year, however, Palos Verdes students join counterparts from Rolling Hills and Miraleste at the newly formed Peninsula High.

Not surprisingly, Peninsula--nicknamed the Panthers--is the top-seeded girls’ basketball team in the Games.

“We’re using this summer to evaluate,” said Peninsula Coach Wendell Yoshida, who coached Palos Verdes for 11 seasons. “In a way, it’s kind of a hassle. We’re trying to teach, assimilate and be competitive. And it would be easy to fall back on my players since we’ve been so good, but I have to be fair and equitable. In a sense, it’s like starting over.”

A total of eight South Bay girls’ basketball teams, including fourth-seeded Morningside, are entered in the Games.

For the first time in 28 years, the Carson High football team will be without coach Gene Vollnogle, who retired after the 1990 season. Vollnogle built a winning legacy at Carson and finished his career with a 12-1 record and a City 4-A championship in 1990.

Marty Blankenship and Jim D’Amore will guide Carson in its game against North Torrance on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

“This is my 19th season at Carson and I expect it to be the same--except without the master,” D’Amore said. “That’s the big difference. The kids have to learn to relate without him.

“We just want to play as well as we can this weekend. We’re always out there to win but if we don’t, we’re not going to lose any sleep over it.”

Ten South Bay teams are entered in football competition. In boys’ soccer, there are six area teams entered. Five teams are entered in girls’ volleyball, four in softball, two in baseball and one in water polo. In addition, several individuals will compete in tennis, track, swimming and diving.