GROSSMONT 2-A LEAGUE : Valhalla Expected to Maintain Top Spot
For numerous reasons, the Grossmont 2-A League basketball trophy again will be in the possession of Valhalla come season’s end.
A sampling:
* Valhalla has won all 22 of its league games the past three seasons and most league coaches believe the gap separating this year’s Norsemen squad with the other four teams has widened with the departure of Grossmont High to the big brother 3-A league.
* El Capitan, Grossmont’s replacement, appears to be the next-best team, but the Vaqueros are 7-9 and are 27-44 over the previous three seasons.
* Valhalla, ranked seventh by The Times, is the only team in the league that has scored more points than it has allowed.
Furthermore, Valhalla has superior size, quickness and the experience of having played in three tough tournaments, including the Above the Rim classic against some of the nation’s bestteams.
An informal poll of league coaches solidified the issue. Despite starting four juniors and a sophomore, Valhalla was the unanimous pick.
“It’s kind of depressing,” El Capitan Coach Jim Gleboff said. “We’re struggling along, and you look at them. They’re loaded and young. My goodness.”
THE RACE
Top contenders: Valhalla (13-5).
Could surprise: El Capitan (7-9).
Hoping for improvement: West Hills (5-8), Santana (3-9), El Cajon Valley (2-9).
Game of the year: Valhalla at El Capitan, Feb. 7. The Norsemen do not figure to be disturbed at home. But in Lakeside, later in the year, if the Vaqueros gel and Valhalla is banged up, if the moon is aligned just so and the referees are in a jovial mood, El Capitan might be able to . . .
THE PLAYERS
The Man: Anticipating having to answer reporters on the subject, Valhalla Coach Manny Silva asked his players before the season which player they felt was the best on the team. Silva said he wasn’t able to make that determination, and neither, it turned out, could his players.
A split vote resulted. It was either sophomore Beau Sager or senior Mike Pettigrew.
Six games into the season, however, the issue became moot. Pettigrew, who took calculus, physics, honors English and three other classes last fall, became academically ineligible.
Who will fill Mark Dillon’s shoes? Sager is well on his way. Dillon, the league’s most valuable player in 1991, holds nearly every Section record pertaining to three-point shooting, but Silva does not hesitate to say that Sager is the best shooter he has ever coached. This includes former Norsemen standouts Rafid Kiti and Tony Clark.
As a freshman last year, Sager won the county three-point shooting contest at Poway High,and Dillon was among the contestants.
“That’s kind of scary,” West Hills Coach Brian Ross said.
Sager, a 6-foot guard, is also on pace to break every section percentage record for free-throw shooting. He has made 59 of 67 (88.1%) for the season.
Others to watch: Pettigrew, when or if he returns, and teammates Wayne Sippial and Scott Biddle give Valhalla plenty of offensive firepower. Doug Schultz, a quarterback for Santana’s football team who is averaging 17.6 points, and teammate Mark Bennett (14.8) have each scored more than 30 points in a game. Another 30-point guy this season is El Cajon Valley’s Mike Harris (averaging 15.3) and teammate Mike Stadler, another football quarterback, is averaging 15.9 points and 8.0 rebounds. West Hill’s Mike Campbell (17.4 ppg) and El Capitan’s Brian Hawkins (13.9) are two of the better all-around players.
THE INTANGIBLES
And they’re off . . . so to speak: Santana started the year 0-7, El Cajon Valley 0-6. El Capitan lost four games in a row at one point and West Hills has lost eight of its last 10.
Santana, however, has rebounded to win three of its last five, including a 50-43 upset of Mt. Miguel on Friday and a bizarre overtime game over a team from Melbourne, Australia, in the Ramona Rotary Roundball Shootout in December. Disqualifications and ejections left Melbourne with one player at the end.
Free shooting spree: Led by Sager, four league players are shooting 80% or better from the free-throw line. Nos. 2 through 5 are El Cajon Valley’s Harris (86.5%), El Capitan’s Hawkins (84.2%) and Kindreich (80%).