Washington Has to Share Field

A constant reminder of last week’s riots remains at Washington High, in the form of National Guard troops using the school as a staging area.

Washington, on Denker near Normandie Avenue, is the closest city school to the corner of Florence and Normandie, where the riot started on Wednesday.

Baseball Coach Kermit Taylor said that the Generals were returning from a game at Crenshaw when the violence began.

“We were coming back from playing Crenshaw on Florence and Western avenues when we saw two or three police cars pass by,” Taylor said. “They quickly made a turn and then just paused. We knew something was going on then because we had already heard the (Rodney King trial) verdict.”

Once the team returned to the school, Taylor lost contact with his team until Monday. He was glad to learn that none of his players were injured.

“It is going to take some time to get back our sharpness, but the reminder of what happened is still around,” Taylor said. “When we practice now, we just have to share one end of our field with the National Guard, who has the other side.”

Another school close to the rioting was Murphy High, located near La Brea Avenue and Third Street.

Murphy, which is in the Santa Fe League in the Southern Section, had to postpone scheduled competition in volleyball and baseball last week.

“The big thing for us is to try to get back on schedule,” said Murphy Athletic Director Rolando Young. “It will be interesting to see what happens now. Hopefully, we’ll be able to make up the games by Saturday.”

A camera shop burned down only yards from Murphy, a private boys’ school that does not have its own athletic fields.

“The school was open on Thursday but not all day,” Young said. “The school itself was not touched but all around you could see the affect. What was a problem was getting the kids out to go home. But, things seem to back to normal today (Monday).”

Because of last week’s riots, the Los Angeles City Section athletic office was left scrambling to reschedule its spring sports events.

All athletic events were postponed Monday, but City officials say that unless more problems arise, there will not be any major changes with the spring playoffs except for track and field.

Last week, the city’s track and field conference preliminaries were postponed because the school district was closed Thursday and Friday. They will be held this week, instead, starting Thursday, with the conference finals delayed a week.

The big adjustment, however, will be the combining of the section quarterfinals and semifinals May 21 so that the City finals date can remain May 28 at Birmingham High in Van Nuys.

“We had to make this adjustment to keep on schedule with the state meet that will be held June 5 and 6 at Cerritos (College),” said Lee Joseph, assistant City athletic director. “We really don’t have time to mess around with track because we have to have all of our qualifiers ready for the state meet.”

The City will basically pass over the semifinals by qualifying its four quarterfinal heat winners in every event along with the next top four marks for the finals.

The only other sport with a schedule to meet is baseball. The City has Dodger Stadium reserved for its June 3 finals. That is not a big concern, though, because the baseball playoffs do not begin until May 22, giving the City time to make up the games that were postponed during the last five days.

“Basically, things aren’t that bad because we have time to make up events,” Joseph said. “Only track and baseball have a set time for the playoffs. With the other sports like volleyball, softball, tennis and swimming, we have the luxury, if necessary, to move back to next month.”

The City volleyball playoffs were scheduled to begin today with the finals May 15, but they were delayed because last week’s seeding meeting was postponed and rescheduled for today.

One city team that was not really affected by the riots was the Palisades High volleyball team, which did not miss a game and even picked up a tournament victory over the weekend.

After losing its first non-tournament match of the season to University High on April 27, the Dolphins defeated Westchester last Wednesday and then played in a Redondo Beach tournament Saturday.

“The (City riots) did not have any affect at all with us,” said Palisades Coach Howard Enstedt. “Most of our team lives in the neighborhood and they did not have any problems. In fact, on Friday I got a call from the Redondo Classic and they wanted us to play. In only a few hours, I was able to get about two-thirds of the team together to play on Saturday.”

Without any preparation, Palisades defeated Anaheim Esperanza in the first round before losing to Rolling Hills Estates Peninsula and Long Beach Wilson.

Palisades will have to wait for the delayed City playoffs before it can get a potential rematch with University, which won a coin flip with the Dolphins in gaining the probable top seeding for the playoffs.

The City announced a new basketball playoff format last week in which most boys’ and girls’ conferences will have teams advance into both the 3-A and 4-A divisions.

Instead of having four of the 12 City boys’ leagues compete in the 4-A Division, as in years past, each conference will determine which schools will play in which division.

The City, trying to have a better balanced playoff setup, hopes to have only the top schools compete in the major 4-A Division.

The 3-A Division’s automatic state tournament berth will be eliminated.

Notes

Wilmington Banning named longtime assistant football coach Ed Paculba to replace Joe Dominguez, who resigned last month. Paculba was the Pilots’ junior varsity coach. . . . The Southern Section will conclude regular seasons in badminton, golf, swimming, tennis, track and volleyball Friday, with baseball and softball finishing May 22.

Times’ Prep Baseball Rankings

CITY SECTION

No. School Div. Record LW 1. University 4-A 15-2 1 2. Granada Hills 4-A 13-4 5 3. San Pedro 4-A 15-3 4 4. Kennedy 4-A 14-7 3 5. Westchester 4-A 14-4 6 6. Chatsworth 4-A 11-9 NR 7. Grant 4-A 12-4 NR 8. Poly 4-A 12-1 8 9. Monroe 4-A 11-3-1 9 10. El Camino Real 4-A 11-6 2

SOUTHERN SECTION

No. School Div. Record LW 1. Diamond Bar 5-A 20-1 1 2. Millikan 5-A 16-2-1 2 3. Mater Dei 5-A 18-2 3 4. Huntington Beach 5-A 19-3 4 5. Hart 5-A 17-2 5 6. Capistrano Valley 4-A 18-3 6 7. Simi Valley 5-A 16-5 7 8. El Segundo 3-A 17-2 9 9. Lakewood 5-A 15-5 10 10. El Dorado 5-A 16-5 11 11. Channel Islands 5-A 18-4 15 12. Nogales 5-A 17-4 NR 13. Arroyo Grande 4-A 13-3 13 14. Bishop Amat 5-A 16-4 8 15. Norte Vista 2-A 18-2 NR