HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK / JIM LINDGREN : End of Boys’ Basketball Season Offers Little in Way of Drama

Talk about anti-climactic.

In a season when six of the nine boys’ basketball leagues played only eight league games, not one title came down to the final day of the regular season, last Friday.

Some race.

The Grossmont 3-A League offered the most drama: Monte Vista, which already had clinched at least a tie, beat last-place Grossmont, 81-44, Thursday to claim the title outright at 7-1. Helix, which was idle, finished 6-2.

Every other league champion finished with at least a two-game cushion.

They are: Carlsbad (14-0 in the Avocado League); Lincoln (8-0, City Central); Morse (7-1, City Eastern); St. Augustine (8-0, City Harbor); Kearny (7-1, City Western); Valhalla (7-1, Grossmont 2-A); Bonita Vista (13-1, Metro); and Torrey Pines (14-0, Palomar).

The best race was for second in the Palomar, the county’s most competitive league. Mt. Carmel, Poway and Vista finished 9-5. Fallbrook could have made it a four-way tie but lost to Rancho Buena Vista on Friday.

In girls’ basketball, five leagues were decided by one game, and Santana and El Cajon Valley were co-champions in the Grossmont 2-A League.

Most Valuable Trainers: In that Rancho Buena Vista-Fallbrook game, James VanderVeur made a three-point basket at the buzzer to lift the Longhorns to a 67-64 victory.

Though VanderVeur set up his shot with a steal with four seconds left, an assist should go to RBV student trainers Fred Ramirez and Josh Bailey, who worked on VanderVeur’s ankle during the first half.

According to RBV Coach John O’Neill: “We just got through talking with the team before the game, and (VanderVeur) kind of collapsed. It was the strangest thing. Something had locked up inside his ankle.”

VanderVeur never left the locker room during the first half.

“We came in at halftime, and it was like something released in his ankle,” O’Neill said. “It never bothered him the entire second half.”

Ramirez and Bailey worked on VanderVeur’s ankle because RBV’s regular trainer, Ric Bahr, is also the trainer for the U.S. men’s volleyball team, and he was out of town because of commitments to that team.

“Ric is obviously an excellent trainer, but he also does a great job with the student trainers as well. (Friday) was a prime example.”

Stay in school: According to an NCAA study published last week in USA Today, only 2.6% of high school boys’ basketball players wind up playing in college, and only 2.7% of college players make it in professional basketball.

Of the roughly 525,000 high school players, only about one of every 8,200 will ever play in the pros.

In football, 6.2% of roughly 927,000 high school players go on to play in college, and only 2.4% of those play professionally.

Morgan Wootten, who coached 15 eventual pro basketball players at Hyattsville (Md.) DeMatha, told USA Today: “You have a better chance of becoming a doctor than becoming Dr. J.”

Scoring champs: Chula Vista’s Jerome Green (26.5 points per game) led the county in scoring for boys’ basketball and El Cajon Valley’s Heather Holm (29.9) led the girls.

Green is a junior, but nonetheless holds the school record for career points with 1,532.

With Holm, El Cajon Valley has averaged 20 victories during her four years. The Braves had won only about four games a year the previous four seasons.

It was a holiday after all: Due to earlier postponements because of rain, USDHS had an odd girls’ soccer doubleheader last Monday. The Dons shut out University City, 6-0, then received a 1-0 forfeit victory when only nine Kearny players showed up for their makeup match.

Said Don Coach Butch Lee: “(Kearny) was the one who scheduled the game. Obviously, some of their kids forgot.”

Love Shack: Their way of saying thank you for 20 years of service and guidance, the Morse booster club is planning a dinner for football Coach John Shacklett on March 14 at the Mission Valley Marriott. Players, coaches and fans from 1971 to ’91 are invited to attend the tribute, titled “A Salute to Shacklett’s Score.”

The dinner is $30 with proceeds to benefit the Morse football scholarship foundation. For details and reservations, call Valerie Macias at 262-2805.

The thrill of victory: The Vista girls’ basketball team started three sophomores and a freshman this year and they paid the price for their inexperience. But after 13 consecutive losses, the Panthers (6-18, 1-13) scored a 47-46 victory over Torrey Pines in the final game of the season.