Sebek’s Injury Puts a Strain on Nordhoff
Nordhoff High guard Tim Sebek was walking around on crutches this week, whining to his coach about how desperately he wanted to play in tonight’s Frontier League basketball game against Santa Clara.
His coach, Dick Sebek, also his father, tried to reason with him.
“I know you want to play, and I want you to play. But you have to use good judgment,” he told his son.
For Tim, that probably means sitting out tonight’s game, but it virtually assures the host Saints of their 63rd consecutive league victory. Sebek, the team’s best player, is averaging 25.2 points, 11.9 rebounds and 7.7 assists.
Sebek suffered a sprained an ankle at the end of practice Monday. On Tuesday, the Rangers defeated Moorpark, 63-48, although they led by only two at halftime. Sophomore Mark Sebek, Tim’s brother, scored a game-high 19 points, one short of his career high.
By Wednesday, Tim was off crutches. “But he was just barely starting to put weight on the leg,” Dick said.
“I think it is more important at this point for him to get that ankle back in shape. He was looking forward to it and we were looking forward to it, but we have a lot of games after this.”
By skipping the game, Tim will have another week to get is ankle ready. Nordhoff has a bye Tuesday before facing Fillmore next Friday.
COMING UP SHORT
Harvard-Westlake enters tonight’s key San Fernando League game against Bell-Jeff without injured center Rob Venick, the team’s leading rebounder (9.4 per game) and third-leading scorer (11.3 points). Venick already has missed three games and parts of several others. A fractured foot might keep him out for the season.
“It was one of those compensation injuries,” Coach Greg Hilliard said. “He hurt it one game and then the fracture came over the course of a couple others.”
Rather than setting the foot in a cast, Venick will go through rehabilitation in hopes of returning for the playoffs. The 6-foot-3 Venick will be missed; Harvard has built a 10-5 record despite its short team.
“We’re all 6-3 and under,” Hilliard said. “We’re going to try to sign up for one of those 6-and-under leagues.”
CROSS-TOWN FRIENDS
So how well do the players at cross-town-rivals Ventura and Buena know each other?
“Our kids know their kids so well that our kids end up telling us about their players,” Ventura Coach Dan Larson said.
CROSS-CHECKING
The Delphic League season is all of one week old and already many teams seem to be standing at the championship crossroads. Or rather, looking up at Crossroads.
Crossroads, the defending league champion, played and defeated four contenders last week: Bel-Air Prep, Brentwood, Campbell Hall and Faith Baptist. The Roadrunners still have home-and-away games remaining against Whitney and Buckley, the weakest teams in the league, while every other team already has at least one defeat.
“Throw in four more wins (in the event of victories over Whitney and Buckley) and Crossroads finishes 8-4 at worst,” Faith Baptist Coach Stuart Mason said. “They’ve probably sewn up first or second place.”
PRESIDENTIAL BEARING
Greg Hayes does not fully understand the intricacies of tracing family roots. But somehow, the Canyon basketball coach shares a family tree with a former U.S. president.
Hayes claims that he is a distant relative of John F. Kennedy.
According to Hayes, research by his late grandmother and a cousin linked the Hayes family’s ancestry in Ireland to that of the 35th president’s. Hayes said that many of his ancestors were Kennedys.
As Hayes understands it, “Somehow, if you’re a Kennedy in Ireland, you’re all related. It’s interesting because my wife is somehow related to Abraham Lincoln.”
HAIR TODAY
Josh Willis, Crescenta Valley’s high-scoring All-Pacific League guard, might be in a class by himself, but he sure looks a lot like teammate Mark Harrison. Both players are 6-6 and have short, light-colored hair.
In fact, if it seems that all the players on the Crescenta Valley team wear the same hairstyle--short and well-groomed--it’s because they do.
Coach John Goffredo, in his 14th season as coach, long has enforced a haircut rule among his players.
“Off the ears, off the forehead and off the neck,” Goffredo said. “We used to have the buzz rule for quite a long time. But we’ve changed with the times.”
FOUL AFTERTASTE
Controversy clouded Hart’s 63-51 Foothill League basketball victory over host Alhambra on Tuesday night.
With four minutes to play and Hart leading, 52-48, Hart center Ali Peek was charged with his third foul, then was whistled for a technical foul for protesting the call.
According to a National Federation of State High School Assns. rule change this season, a player charged with a technical foul automatically is charged with a personal foul. However, the officials assessed Peek only one personal foul instead of two.
Alhambra Coach James Wetmore immediately protested. He said that school administrators will file a protest with league officials within a week.
“If the (league officials) have any sense of justice, we will replay the game from the point of the infraction,” Wetmore said.
That is unlikely to happen. As Wetmore concedes, protests rarely are upheld. Hart Coach Greg Herrick argued that the Indians would have won anyway because Peek would have remained in the game regardless. Peek picked up what should have been his fifth foul with 50 seconds to play and Hart leading by 10 points. “He said Ali would have played differently (with four fouls),” Herrick said. “But who’s to say? I know they made a mistake, but what am I supposed to do? I’ll play them again with 50 seconds to play and a 10-point lead.”
FILLING THE BREACH
When Michelle Aasen made the Alemany girls’ soccer team as a freshman this fall, Coach Marcia Takahashi hoped that Aasen would be able to play goalkeeper part time. But when another goalie quit the squad, Takahashi had to give the job to Aasen full time.
The results have been encouraging. Alemany is 12-4-1 and Aasen has had a hand in 11 shutouts, including two last week in Mission League wins over Chaminade and St. Bernard.
“I think she is going to be a good one,” Takahashi said. “She works so hard, she has to get better.”
It helps Aasen can rely on a veteran defensive backfield. Michelle Bush is a junior All-Southern Section sweeper who has started since she was a freshman. Fullbacks Julie Blaus, Maureen O’Hare and Caprice Cartier are seniors. That group has allowed only 14 goals in 17 matches.
SCORING ROLL
Joey Ramirez, Santa Paula’s 6-0 senior guard, scored 28 points and had six three-point baskets against Santa Clara last week. But that was a yawn compared to his performance the previous Friday against Moorpark in which he scored 38 points--four shy of the school record. Unaware that the mark was in sight, Coach Tom Donahue took Ramirez out of the game with two minutes left and victory assured.
MORE MOUNTIES
Montclair Prep has won 12 games in a row, and the Mounties’ manpower has increased by two this week.
David Orso, a transfer from Village Christian, finally was cleared last week by the Southern Section to play at Montclair Prep.
“He will help with the outside shooting,” Coach Howard Abrams said.
And for the inside game, the Mounties welcome back Greg Rosen, a 6-5 sophomore forward who has recovered from bone problems in his legs. “He was growing too fast,” Abrams said.
David Coulson, Vince Kowalick and staff writers Steve Elling, T.C. Porter and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.