NOTEBOOK / SEAN WATERS : Crossroads’ Allen Expects to Give Early Commitment

Crossroads High guard Bakir Allen, who has narrowed his college choices to Kansas State and UC Santa Barbara, said he will give an unwritten commitment to one of the schools during the Nov. 11-18 early signing period.

Allen, a 6-foot-4 guard, averaged 22 points, six assists and four rebounds a game last season.

Santa Monica College football Coach Owen Hahn donated practice jerseys, shoulder pads and blocking dummies to the Jordan High football program before the start of the season.

“We were desperate for equipment and Coach Hahn really came through for us,” Jordan High Coach David Richardson said. “It might have been old equipment for them, but it was new to us.”

Although Santa Monica is winless in five games at Bakersfield during the 11 years Hahn has been coach, the losing streak goes back further than that.

Hahn, 53, discovered that Santa Monica has not won at Bakersfield since 1939, when Santa Monica was in its second year as a school and Hahn was 1 year old.

Although Westchester, which is 7-0-1 and 5-0 in Coastal Conference play, and Sylmar (7-0, 5-0 in the Valley Pac-8) are the only undefeated football teams in the City Section, it is doubtful that either one will be seeded higher than perennial power Carson when the 4-A Division playoff pairings are announced next week.

Reputation will have much to do with how the teams are seeded. The Colts (5-2-1) compete in the Pacific League, which has produced the last four 4-A champions. The last San Fernando team to win a 4-A title was Granada Hills in 1987.

A Westside school has never won the City’s major division title.

After winning its first Coastal Conference boys’ cross-country title, the Hamilton Yankees will compete in the City Section preliminaries today at Pierce College.

Last week at Pierce, Hamilton’s Omar Marroquin ran the three-mile course in 16 minutes 11 seconds to win Coastal Conference individual honors.

In the girls’ race, Genevieve DeBose won in 20:18 to lead the Yankees to a second-place finish behind Palisades. The Dolphins’ Rebecca Ferguson (20:41) finished second and Bertina Hernandez (20:54) was third. Hamilton’s Leticia Lamas finished in 21:24 to place fourth.

“Our boys will have a tough time qualifying for City finals because many of the teams in L.A. City are improved this year,” Hamilton Coach Bruce Thomson said. “I think our girls have a good shot if our No. 3, 4 or 5 runners can run 30 seconds faster.”

Those runners are Raja Lahti (22:12), Tanyatta El (22:51) and Francisca Gracia (23:38).

Thomson considers Belmont and Huntington Park the teams to beat in the boys’ race and Belmont and Birmingham the favorites in the girls’ race.

The Brentwood football team brought back more than memories from a three-day retreat to the Santa Ynez Mountains two weeks ago.

Four starters contracted chicken pox last Thursday, a day before Brentwood’s game against Campbell Hall. In addition, leading scorer Matt Newmark broke his fibula the previous week against Webb to leave Coach Pat Brown with 12 players.

“One kid had chicken pox at camp and all the seniors who never had it came down with it the same day,” Brown said. “It was a real big blow and they still haven’t been back to practice yet.”

Brown recruited four junior varsity players who had played in a game Thursday, and Brentwood managed to beat Campbell Hall 6-0. It is uncertain if the sick players will be able to return for Friday’s game against Flintridge Prep.