Rain, Schedule Take Their Toll on City Section

Scott Kemple faces the difficult task this week of having his Tujunga Verdugo Hills High boys’ basketball team play five games in four days.

It has been that kind of a season for City Section basketball coaches.

Already frustrated by the City’s change to year-round school, Kemple could only sit and watch last week as Nature added to his misery. The Dons had to postpone Northern Conference games against Eagle Rock and Wilson because of heavy rains. A Feb. 7 game at Franklin also was called off because of a leaky gymnasium roof.

Until Tuesday, Verdugo Hills had played only one game and had one full practice in two weeks. Because Monday was a holiday and Friday is the final day of the regular season, the Dons will have a busy week.

Verdugo Hills will play two games each against Eagle Rock and Franklin. It will make up the Wilson game only if it has a bearing on the playoffs, which will begin Tuesday. The Dons are 2-3 in conference and 8-8 overall.

“The most irritating thing about last week was for the most part we didn’t know our games were called off until the last minute,” said Kemple, in his first season as coach after two years as an assistant. “You try to practice, but the intensity is not there.”

The Los Angeles Unified School District called off school Friday because of the weather, so no games were played. Heavy rains last Wednesday resulted in some schools postponing games.

Students at the majority of schools in the district returned to classes Tuesday after a two-month vacation, the result of the new year-round calendar. Although the basketball season went on as scheduled, there was a two-week period in January with no games or practices. As a result, the past month has been sporadic.

“This year has really been butchered,” said Richard Masson, the boys’ coach at Carson. “This is just the latest in a long line of things that has not made the season very enjoyable for me as a coach.”

The Pacific Palisades boys’ team also has a difficult week, facing Manual Arts, Westchester and Fairfax. All three are ranked in the Times’ City poll.

Concerns about this past season are certain to be voiced at the coaches’ playoff seeding meeting Thursday night.

Perhaps no coach is as upset as Bob Webb, whose Van Nuys Montclair Prep boys’ basketball team recently finished one of the most successful seasons in school history.

The Mounties won the Alpha League with a 10-0 record and finished the season 24-1, winning their last 22 games. But when the Southern Section playoff pairings were released Sunday, Montclair Prep was nowhere to be found.

The school is in the middle of a one-year suspension from postseason competition in all sports, the result of illegal recruiting by the football program in 1990.

Principal Vernon Simpson’s appeal of the decision was turned down by both the Southern Section and State CIF office.

If allowed to compete, Montclair Prep probably would have been seeded No. 1 in Division V-AA, the second smallest in classification of 10 divisions.

The Southern Section will hold its first dual-meet wrestling championship tournament beginning today. The section has long held individual championships.

The Southern Section is the first of the state’s 10 sections to offer such a tournament, although several other states have had a similar format.

Four 16-team divisions will compete for titles in two days of competition. The No. 1- and No. 2-seeded teams in each division will play host to the teams in their bracket. Matches begin at 2:30 p.m., with winners meeting at 4 p.m. The quarterfinal winners meet at 5:30 p.m. with a championship berth on the line.

Title matches will be Feb. 27 at Edison High in Huntington Beach.

Times’ Prep Polls

CITY SECTION BOYS

No. School Div. Rec. LW 1. Westchester 4-A 21-2 1 2. Fremont 3-A 23-3 2 3. Crenshaw 4-A 14-3 3 4. Washington 4-A 16-3 5 5. Dorsey 4-A 15-4 4 6. Manual Arts 4-A 16-4 6 7. N. Hollywood 3-A 21-1 7 8. Fairfax 4-A 13-7 8 9. Carson 4-A 14-7 9 10. Reseda 4-A 10-5 10

GIRLS

No. School Div. Rec. LW 1. Washington 4-A 21-2 1 2. Banning 4-A 12-5 2 3. Carson 4-A 13-5 3 4. Crenshaw 4-A 16-3 4 5. N. Hollywood 4-A 15-3 6 6. Dorsey 4-A 10-5 7 7. Van Nuys 3-A 15-2 8 8. Jefferson 3-A 17-6 NR 9. Roosevelt 3-A 14-4 5 10. Belmont 3-A 9-1 NR

SOUTHERN SECTION, FINAL BOYS

No. School Div. Rec. LW 1. Mater Dei I 26-1 1 2. Capistrano Val. I 23-3 2 3. Cajon I 22-2 4 4. Glendora II 26-0 5 5. Riv. North I 23-2 6 6. Lynwood I 21-5 4 7. Artesia II 21-3 7 8. Trabuco Hills II 20-5 8 9. Lakewood I 19-6 10 10. San Bern. I 21-4 9 11. La Canada III 23-2 11 12. Buena I 21-4 NR 13. LB Jordan I 19-6 13 14. San Marcos II 20-4 14 15. Santa Clara IV 21-3 15

GIRLS

No. School Div. Rec. LW 1. Peninsula I 25-0 1 2. Thou. Oaks I 23-1 2 3. Brea-Olinda III 24-2 3 4. Lynwood I 22-1 4 5. Capistrano Val. I 24-1 5 6. Rubidoux II 23-0 6 7. Buena I 22-2 8 8. Chino I 22-4 9 9. Ventura II 19-3 10 10. Gahr II 21-4 7 11. Lakewood I 19-5 NR 12. Alemany II 21-4 13 13. Millikan I 20-5 14 14. St. Bernard III 20-4 15 15. Glenn II 23-1 NR