Santa Clara Makes Frontier a Dull Place

Santa Clara is 20-3, 7-0 in the Frontier League, where it has not lost in 67 games since 1984. The Saints have clinched their eighth consecutive league title.

Fillmore Coach John Wilber, for one, thinks the league race might be more interesting without them.

“If they weren’t in the league, it would be exciting,” he said. “Someone different would win it every year.

“Nordhoff and Santa Paula have their best teams in years. It’s just that Santa Clara’s in the league. It’s tough.”

RACE FOR SECOND

Mark White estimates that he has gained 15 or 20 pounds since he played football last fall at Canyon High. He laughs when he admits that he’s been somewhat lazy, and has spent many hours sitting around the house watching TV.

One Canyon Country resident can thank her lucky stars for White’s sedentary nature, as well as his athletic instincts.

White, a senior defensive end, rescued Sally Swanson from a rain-swollen ravine near their Canyon Country homes Monday, a few feet before she might have been pulled under the water.

Friends, neighbors and city officials already have deemed White a hero, but he says he was merely doing what anybody else would in a similar situation.

White (6-foot-1, 190 pounds) was spending his Monday afternoon watching TV at home, enjoying a school holiday. He was stranded, he said, because the lone road that leads to his home on Valley Ranch Road runs through a wash that was under three feet of raging rainwater.

White called a former teammate, Andy Cleland, at about 1 p.m. and told him to drive down to see how high the water level had risen. White said he simply planned to wave and shout at Cleland from the other side of the ravine.

“I called him down just so we could both say ‘wow’ at the same time,” White said.

White was waiting for Cleland as Swanson attempted to cross the ravine in her van, which couldn’t handle the torrent and stalled. Swanson, 54, climbed out of the van and attempted to reach the other side. She was soon swept downstream and White bolted into action when he heard a cry for help.

White jumped into the water and grabbed Swanson, who was within a few feet of being swept over a three-foot rock embankment. Swanson was unable to offer much assistance in her own rescue, however.

“She was so exhausted she couldn’t even lift her arm,” White said. “I grabbed a bush that leaned over into the water and tried to pull us out.”

White finally succeeded in climbing up the embankment to safety as the van continued down the rampaging ravine. Swanson was treated and released from a local hospital.

As it turns out, Swanson lives in the same subdivision as White, attends the same church and knows White’s mother.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Taft basketball Coach Jim Woodard reached up and placed an arm around the sloping shoulders of Cleveland forward Shawn Bankhead, then whispered a few words in his ear.

Bankhead had just been held to 14 points--half his scoring average--by Taft’s diamond-and-one defense Friday and had plenty of trouble merely getting his mitts on the ball.

Woodard was hardly offering words of commiseration, though. More like adulation.

“I told him it was a sign of respect,” Woodard said. “He and (Reseda’s) Marquis Burns, you have to do that because they’re so special.”

Bankhead is getting used to being singled out.

“That’s how it’s going to be as long as I’m scoring all these points,” said Bankhead, who scored 39 and 38 points in his two previous outings. “The other players don’t know how to get me the ball yet against a box-and-one defense. Eventually, it’ll happen.”

Taft defeated Cleveland, 89-64, marking the Toreadors’ second victory over the Cavaliers in the past 10 seasons.

SECOND CHANCE

The City Section’s remedial intersession period was good to Cleveland. Three players who were sidelined in December by academic ineligibility made up work in January and rejoined the team last week.

One showed few signs of rust.

Terrayne Evans, a senior starter at guard, scored 18 and 20 points in two games and should help take some of the pressure off Bankhead.

Help came just in time. A week earlier, Cleveland was forced to complete an overtime loss to Chatsworth with four players. Five players suited up for the game.

“It helps to have options,” Coach Kevin Crider said.

Last Friday against Taft, Cleveland had 11 players in uniform and eight scored.

INJURED WHAT?

St. Genevieve’s players are healthy. Not so much can be said for the coach, Dan Donovan.

“It was kind of embarrassing going into the emergency room and telling them what happened,” said Donovan, who pulled muscles in his rib cage while jumping during the Valiants’ victory over La Salle on Friday.

He has difficulty breathing and sleeping, but it is nothing that will keep him from the Valiants’ remaining games.

A lesson was learned.

“I guess I should have stretched before the game,” he said.

THE END IS NEAR

Howard Abrams has coached at Montclair Prep since 1976.

The team has won two Southern Section championships and another was runner-up.

And he thinks this team--anchored by Jared Sonne, Kris Johnson and Chris Sanger--is as good as any he’s had.

“We go deep. We’ve got a good shooter in Sonne, one of my top five players since ‘76,” Abrams said. “Johnson is an improved post man from what we’ve had. Sanger handles the ball well and shoots well. And then our point guard (Steve Cain) is another good leader, another senior.”

Problem is, the Mounties (23-1, 9-0 in league play), who have won the Alpha League title, apparently have nowhere to go. All Montclair Prep athletic teams have been barred from the playoffs until the fall for previous athletic violations by the football program.

“If it would do any good to march down there and protest we would,” Abrams said, “but it’s not going to do any good.”

The Mounties have a nonleague game against Campbell Hall on Saturday that will function as their playoff game, a final challenge for one of Abrams’ best teams. Campbell Hall reached the Southern Section Division V-AA final last season.

FIRST-QUARTER BLUES

Westlake was outscored, 36-9, in the first quarter of two Marmonte League losses last week. In a 55-38 loss to Agoura, the Warriors were outscored, 16-0, and committed 13 turnovers in the first quarter.

“We tied a Southern Section record, even if it was for lack of points in a quarter,” Coach Gary Grayson said. “Call it a record of infamy.”

It didn’t get much better for the Warriors on Friday. In the first quarter of a 69-40 loss to Simi Valley, Westlake was just four for 19 from the field.

ALL WET

Monday’s rainstorm left Royal Coach Ira Sollod stranded in his Burbank home, and Sollod could not travel with his team to Thousand Oaks for the Highlanders’ 64-57 Marmonte League loss. “I got all dressed and ready to go, but there was nowhere to go,” Sollod said.

HIGH-WATER MARK

Providence (11-8, 6-2) grabbed a share of first place in the Liberty League last week with three consecutive wins, including a two-game sweep of Avalon on Santa Catalina Island.

It seems Providence plays its best on the road--or sea, in this case.

“In 1988 we were 1-19 and the only game we won was in the Parker tournament in Arizona,” Coach Paul Sutton said. “That year I told the kids we were 0 for California.

“This year, I told them we’re 2-0 overseas.”

OUCH!

Seventeen stitches were needed to close the gash over the right eye of Crescenta Valley High guard John Peterson after Peterson bumped heads with a Muir player last week.

A plastic surgeon was required to repair the two-inch gash, Crescenta Valley Coach John Goffredo said.

SPRING FOLLIES

Newbury Park (11-9, 6-5) has been winning this season even though the school has the Marmonte League’s smallest enrollment and the Panthers’ entire starting lineup is better known for its proficiency in other sports.

Starters Jeff Hook (baseball), Jason Patterson (baseball), Robert Fick (baseball), Keith Smith (football and baseball), and Sean McKeown (football and track) might consider basketball a hobby. The Panthers’ first two players off the bench are Bryant Fick (baseball) and Ryan Grady (volleyball and football).

“With spring sports just around the corner, we’re trying to keep them concentrating on basketball,” Coach Greg Ropes said.

LUCKLESS

Camarillo (3-17) has endured one of its worst seasons in history. And it seems the Scorpions, who have lost five games by a total of 10 points, can find any way to lose these days.

In an 80-75 loss to Royal on Friday, Camarillo held a six-point lead with 30 seconds left in regulation. Royal buried a three-point shot, Camarillo missed a breakaway layin, then the Highlanders threw a full-court pass to Steve Hodge, who hit a three-point shot that tied the score with three seconds left and sent the game into overtime.

“We have some unbelievable luck,” Camarillo Coach Mike Prewitt said. “I don’t know what the answer is. It’s frustrating for the players, staff, parents and everybody else.”

FAIR SHARE

If Mac Becker were not the athletic director at Sherman Oaks CES, he might be more partial to the needs of his boys’ basketball team--which he coaches--than to that of the girls’ teams. Sherman Oaks CES has just one gymnasium with two baskets, which 72 players--both girls and boys--must share during sixth period. The boys’ and girls’ teams take turns in the gym for after-school practices.

“They are entitled to it just as the boys are,” Becker said. “I would love to say that because the boys need the gym more, they will use it all the time, but that wouldn’t be fair.”

When the girls’ teams are practicing in the gym, the boys take to the blacktop at Portola Jr. High, and vice versa.

MAKING IT COUNT

It isn’t all that surprising that Eddie Powell is the leading scorer at Verdugo Hills. After all, Powell takes twice as many shots as any teammate and converts more than half of them.

Powell, a junior transfer from Oakland, is averaging 25.3 points a game, third among the area’s City Section players.

The 5-10 guard shot 64% from the field in his first 10 games. Although his average has since dropped to 57%, Powell is still the main reason Verdugo Hills (8-8, 2-3) is improving.

“He is very fun to watch,” Verdugo Hills Coach Scott Kemple said. “He does some things that are just amazing. He’s the kind of guy that when we’re down by 20, he’s still out there smiling and having fun.”

Powell recorded his first triple-double last week. In the Dons’ 73-70 victory over Wilson, Powell finished with a game-high 25 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists.

Vince Kowalick and staff writers Steve Elling, Paige A. Leech, T.C. Porter and Jeff Riley contributed to this notebook.