City Events Postponed for 2nd Week; Rest of Season Could Be Canceled

All athletic events in the Los Angeles Unified School District have been postponed for the second consecutive week and City Section officials might be forced to cancel the rest of the winter sports season in the aftermath of the Jan. 17 earthquake, City Commissioner Barbara Fiege said Monday.

Officials from schools affected by the earthquake will meet today at Grant High in Van Nuys to consider various options, including the holding of tournaments in place of the remainder of the regular season. Last week, all City Section athletic events were postponed because of the earthquake.

“Our options range from canceling the season to making all attempts to hold games,” Fiege said. “This involves not only basketball, but soccer, wrestling and possible changes in the spring sports schedule.”

Practice for spring sports is scheduled to begin Feb. 15, but might be postponed, Fiege said.

According to Fiege, 24 of the City’s 49 schools have been affected by the earthquake.

Six San Fernando Valley schools--Chatsworth, Kennedy, Monroe, Reseda, San Fernando and Verdugo Hills--have basketball gymnasiums that suffered either structural or water damage and are unavailable indefinitely.

In addition, schools being used as shelters are Belmont, Birmingham, Canoga Park, Fairfax, Granada Hills, Hollywood, Manual Arts, North Hollywood, Sylmar and Van Nuys.

San Fernando, which had been used as a shelter, was evacuated over the weekend when engineers discovered structural damage.

The gyms at Cleveland, El Camino Real and Hamilton suffered minor damage and had been unusable until Monday.

One of the options being considered to save the winter season would be to play double-, triple- and quadrupleheaders once the affected schools reopen. The City also is considering playing games on Saturdays, holding them at alternate sites or shortening the season.

The final option would call for single-elimination tournaments in boys’ and girls’ basketball and boys’ and girls’ soccer. Preliminaries and finals would be scheduled for wrestling.

“Playing games is nice, but not at the cost of of making them into a negative situation,” said Jeff Halpern, boys’ basketball coach at Reseda. “Basketball is a good diversion, but will the kids have their hearts in it after all that has happened? I’m not sure it’s worth it.”

Steve Miller, boys’ basketball coach at North Hollywood, said he favors trying to salvage the season.

“If people take the time and have flexibility, schools that want to play should be able to,” he said. “Kids and coaches have invested a lot of time in the season.”

Although Monroe’s gym suffered substantial water damage and was deemed unusable for the rest of the season, Coach Paul Graber has no reservations about playing elsewhere.

“I’d like to see the girls and boys double up at each of the sites,” Graber said. “If you have a site to play at, you play there.”

Grant Coach Howie Levine concurred. “I want to see us get as many games in as possible.”

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Inspectors on Monday closed the gym at Crescenta Valley of the Southern Section’s Pacific League because of structural damage, according to basketball Coach John Goffredo, who said the gym will be unusable for at least a month.

The Falcons will play the remainder of their home games at Glendale College. The game scheduled for Tuesday against Muir will be played Wednesday at Glendale College.

In the Mission League, the eight athletic directors are scheduled to meet today at Notre Dame to discuss the rescheduling of games. Besides disruptions caused by the earthquake, Crespi postponed two games last week because of the death of Coach Paul Muff.

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In the Foothill League, Burbank will play its scheduled game at Burroughs tonight but the Hart-at-Canyon game has been postponed and the two sides appear to have different contingency plans. Canyon Coach Greg Hayes told his team it would play Hart either Wednesday or Thursday.

“I got a call from (Hart Principal Laurence Strauss) and that’s not going to happen,” said Hart assistant Gary Spindt. “But we’re practicing and we’ll play any time, any place.”

In nonleague action, tonight’s game between Santa Paula and Oak Park (17-2) has tentatively been moved to Wednesday, but Oak Park Coach Rob Hall said the game might be canceled.

Times’ Top 20 Basketball Polls

The Times’ top 20 high school basketball polls, with teams from the City and Southern Sections. BOYS

School Sect. Div. Rec. LW 1. Mater Dei SS I-A 21-0 1 2. Crenshaw City 4-A 14-2 2 3. Westchester City 4-A 16-3 3 4. Dominguez SS II-A 17-2 4 5. Fontana SS I-AA 18-1 5 6. Inglewood SS II-AA 17-3 6 7. JW North SS II-AA 18-0 7 8. Los Alamitos SS I-AA 17-3 8 9. St. John Bosco SS II-A 17-2 9 10. Hart SS I-A 18-1 10 11. Santa Barbara SS II-AA 18-2 12 12. Manual Arts City 4-A 13-4 13 13. Warren SS I-A 16-4 14 14. Verbum Dei SS IV-A 14-2 15 15. Trabuco Hills SS II-AA 17-4 16 16. Fairfax City 4-A 13-4 17 17. LB Poly SS I-AA 14-6 20 18. Loyola SS I-A 11-5 18 19. Glendora SS II-AA 19-2 19 20. S. Ana Valley SS I-AA 18-3 11

GIRLS

School Sect. Div. Rec. LW 1. Brea-Olinda SS III-AA 19-0 1 2. Lynwood SS I-AA 19-1 2 3. Buena SS I-A 13-1 3 4. Alemany SS II-A 16-0 4 5. Gahr SS II-AA 5-14* 5 6. Woodbridge SS II-AA 18-0 6 7. Peninsula SS I-AA 14-3 7 8. St. Bernard SS IV-AA 17-4 8 9. Carson City 4-A 15-2 9 10. Ch. Islands SS I-A 15-2 10 11. B. Montgomery SS III-AA 15-5 11 12. Cypress SS II-A 19-2 13 13. Bishop Amat SS II-A 17-1 14 14. LB Poly SS I-A 16-3 12 15. Valley Chr. SS IV-A 17-2 15 16. Mater Dei SS II-AA 15-3 16 17. Ocean View SS II-AA 17-3 NR 18. San Bernardino SS II-A 16-3 NR 19. Thousand Oaks SS I-A 13-5 17 20. Lakewood SS I-AA 16-4 NR

* Indicates 10 losses by forfeit.