Cregar Finds Competing With Boys Is a Start

Highland Hall’s Carrie Cregar won’t get her name in the Southern Section record book for high school girls’ basketball--she has no chance, after the Hawks’ program folded this season.

But if there were categories for girls playing boys’ basketball, Cregar, a senior guard, would have to be considered. How many girls have played all 32 minutes of a boys’ varsity game?

Cregar was pressed into full-time action when Highland Hall could suit up only five of its 10 players for Friday’s Westside League game against North Hills Prep. She scored four points in a 91-67 defeat.

“She’s normally my sixth man, but today she had to start,” said Hawk Coach Humberto Ramirez, who usually uses the 5-foot-6 Cregar for defense. “She’s helped us out quite a bit, even though we’re 0-6. I normally bring her in when we’re running a box-and-one, and she’s the chaser.”

Ramirez said he is glad he made the decision to let Cregar play with the boys. Coaching at a school that stresses academics and arts over sports, Ramirez is accustomed to small rosters. Seven of his players are musicians. Three of them go directly from practice to their music lessons. Basketball practice must not conflict with music or drama.

Cregar was one of only three who signed up for girls’ basketball at Highland Hall. After the team was dropped, some of his players told Ramirez of Cregar’s desire to try out for the boys’ team. Making boys’ varsity at a four-year school with a total enrollment of 80 was a slam dunk for Cregar.

“I invited her out . . . not that we have tryouts or anything,” Ramirez said. “I put a uniform on anybody who comes out.”

IN GOOD COMPANY

Ventura guard Darien Roberts, who scored a career-high 40 points two weeks ago against Thousand Oaks in the Ventura tournament, has raised his career total to 629 points. It is not known where Roberts ranks among the school’s all-time leaders because the list runs only eight deep and Roberts’ name is not on it.

However, Roberts is fewer than 300 points away from making the list. And he will be in privileged company if he does.

Ventura’s career scoring leader is Danny Roberts, Darien’s uncle, with 1,202 points from 1965-68. Second is Keith Wilkes (later Jamaal Wilkes of the Lakers), with 995 points from 1967-69. Third is Ventura Coach Dan Larson, with 957 points from 1975-78.

With 12 Channel League games remaining, plus at least one playoff game, Roberts needs to average better than 44 points a game to reach the record.

“He’ll never catch his uncle,” Larson said.

His coach is a possibility.

Roberts trails Larson by 328 points. In 13 games, he needs to average 25.2 points. In 14 games, he would need to average 23.4 points. In 15 games, 21.9 points.

Roberts is averaging 18.4 points this season after 12 games.

SPOTLIGHT

After playing in the shadows of his older brother for two seasons, Nordhoff’s Mark Sebek is taking over.

The 6-foot-2 junior swingman has team-leading averages in scoring (13.7 points), rebounding (10.6), assists (4.6) and steals (1.9). He had 16 points and 15 rebounds in the Rangers’ Frontier League-opening win over Santa Paula last week.

Tim Sebek, now a freshman guard at Azusa Pacific, was a standout for the Rangers. Nordhoff Coach Dick Sebek, the boys’ father, said Mark has spread his wings since Tim graduated.

“There were a whole group of kids (on the team) who looked at Mark as being Tim’s younger brother, but, with the passage of time and graduation, those kids are now gone,” Dick said. “Mark has now had a chance to gain more of an identity for himself.

“His role on the team has expanded and he’s handled it very well. He’s taken his game to another level.”

REPAIRS NEEDED

Practicing at the Burbank boys’ gym can be a slippery situation--especially this time of year.

The roof in the Bulldogs’ gym leaks in several places when it rains. Last week’s storms forced Coach Fred Cook to alter practice plans.

“Yeah, there was a lot of slippin’ and slidin’ going on,” Cook said. “You really can’t get too much practicing in when it’s raining inside the building.

“It was so bad in certain areas that we couldn’t use the whole court, so we ran a lot of half-court drills. Unfortunately, we play full-court games.”

Cook, in his fourth season as the Bulldogs’ coach, said he has complained about the roof to the administration previously.

“They keep saying its been fixed correctly . . . . that they’ve patched it. We’ll see.”

JUST SHORT

One-point games have not been a lot of fun for Burbank.

The Bulldogs are 0-3 in games decided by a point and 4-7 overall. However, Cook is not one to worry--not yet at least.

“We should definitely be 7-4 now. We’ve been in every game we’ve played this season,” Cook said. “We’re doing one thing wrong right now, but I’m not going to say what it is because that would expose our weakness.

“It’s not a major weakness, though. That’s all I’ll say.”

NO BREAKS

Either Pacific League teams played easy nonleague schedules, or this is one of the best seasons in years for the league. Take the latter.

Consider:

Muir, the league favorite, is 13-4, 2-0 in the league. Crescenta Valley is 13-2, 1-1. Glendale, winner of 11 of its past 14, is 11-5, 1-1. Arcadia, which was 0-10 in the league last season, is 14-4, 0-2. Only Hoover, which is 7-9, 0-2, has failed to reach double figures in the win column.

“I can never remember it being quite so hard to look at the schedule and see when you’re going to win a game,” Glendale Coach Bob Davidson said.

WOE-LVERINES

It could get worse for the Harvard-Westlake basketball team, but not much.

The Wolverines were 17-9 and finished second in the San Fernando League last season. But in the off-season, they lost six players to graduation and six more because of injuries, transfers and players deciding they didn’t want to play basketball any more.

A fine season to join the Mission League.

The Wolverines’ league opener: Loyola 106, Harvard 60.

“There aren’t any bad teams in here except us right now,” Coach Greg Hilliard said. “I think any year prior to this we would have done well and been competitive, but this year it’s been a little more of a challenge because of circumstances.”

Hilliard also learned last week that J.W. Hobson, the team’s leading scorer and lone bright spot, would be out indefinitely with mononucleosis.

“If it was a miracle recovery, he could get back after three weeks,” Hilliard said.

PAINFUL REMINDER

La Reina girls’ soccer coach Joe Laraneta is grudgingly realizing he may have to start making some concessions to age. Laraneta, 50, tore his left calf muscle while teaching a trick move and shot to some of his players after a practice last week.

“It was a good move and a great shot, but I hit the ground like a rock,” Laraneta said. “My doctor said the problem was my mind thought I was 18 again and my body told me, ‘You weren’t.’ ”

STRESS TEST

Alemany girls’ basketball Coach Melissa Hearlihy was hoping for some rest and relaxation when she traveled to Ohio for four days of vacation during break. But whatever stress Hearlihy released on the trip was compounded on her return.

“As soon as I got home, I found out I’d lost two of my starters,” Hearlihy explained.

Sophomore guard Kelly McKay, the Indians’ best defensive player and third-leading scorer, suffered a stress fracture in her right foot and will miss four to six weeks. Senior forward Barbara Ward is lost for the season with chronic knee trouble, the culmination of strained knee ligaments she first injured last season.

To make matters worse, Alemany lost, 67-46, last Tuesday to Mission League rival St. Bernard and the Indians’ leading scorer, sophomore swing player Samantha Rigley, sprained an ankle in Saturday’s victory over Notre Dame. Fortunately for Hearlihy, Rigley was able to return later in the game.

Kennedy Cosgrove, David Coulson and staff writers Steve Elling, Jeff Fletcher, Vince Kowalick, Paige A. Leech and Jason H. Reid contributed to this notebook.