Sports

FAST COMPANY

How good is freshman quarter-miler Malika Edmonson of St. Bernard?

Track promoter Don Franken wrote in a press release that Edmonson “is probably the greatest high school track prospect since Marion Jones.”

Edmonson will make her debut in the high school portion of the Sunkist Invitational track meet Saturday at the Los Angeles Sports Arena. She will compete in the 500-yard race.

More than 1,500 students from 300 high schools will compete. In addition to Edmonson, Kaaron Conwright of Westchester will be one of the featured sprinters in the 50 meters.

Edmonson, 14, has already been impressive, setting a national age-group mark of 54.7 for the 400 meters last summer. Her time was better than the winning time of 55.45 in last year’s State Meet.

Edmonson’s mother is Barbara Ferrell-Edmonson, USC women’s track coach and a silver medalist in the 100 meters at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games and a gold medal winner on the 400-meter relay team.

Her father, Warren Edmonson, was the 1972 NCAA 100-meter champion from UCLA.

NARROWING THE FIELD

In 1974, San Fernando High School, led by Charles White, beat Palisades, 12-10, to win the Los Angeles City Section football championship. It was the last time only one football title was up for grabs in a particular year.

Twenty years later, the Los Angeles Football Coaches Assn. would like to return to the days when only one team was crowned champion.

Members of LAFCA, which represents high school football coaches in the L.A. Unified School District, met last week to discuss revamping the postseason playoff format.

Under the current playoff system, 49 teams are divided into the 4-A and 3-A divisions. There are six conferences and two leagues within each conference. The 16 teams with the best records in each division are selected to the playoffs.

This system proved to be inequitable because good teams from more competitive leagues were being left out of the playoffs.

“There are too many problems selecting teams and seeding them in the playoffs,” Fairfax Coach Terrel Ray said. “Everyone agrees that the Southern Pacific Conference is the toughest to play in. But when it comes to the playoffs, no one can agree on how many teams to take from that conference.”

The coaches panel is considering a plan to have 49 teams compete for one championship. The schools would play a nine-game regular season and the 32 teams with the best records would qualify for postseason play. The remaining 17 teams would be invited to compete in a consolation tournament.

HIGH MARKS

St. Bernard 6-2 forward Olympia Scott grabbed 39 rebounds and scored 16 points in a 60-16 win over Harvard-Westlake last week.

Her rebounding total tied Gina Atkins of Apple Valley Christian for second in the Southern Section for most rebounds in a game. Neysa Dunnings of Compton Regina Caeli had 45 rebounds to set the Southern Section mark during the 1988-89 season.

Melissa Hake of Los Angeles Wilson had 53 rebounds in 1987 to set the state mark.

In four years, the Stanford-bound Scott has had 1,308 rebounds to rank seventh in the Southern Section. Terri Mann of San Diego Point Loma holds the state career rebounding record with 2,256.

VIEW FROM THE TOP

Brentwood won Southern Section boys’ basketball titles in 1991 and 1992 despite being a wild-card team. Now the Eagles will try to win a championship for the first time as the top-seeded team.

Brentwood Coach Bob Ingram was pleased with the seeding but tried to downplay its importance.

“I don’t think the seeding means much past the first round if you do win,” Ingram said. “After the first round, you lose the home-court advantage and you never know whether you’re going to be home or on the road four or five hours away.”

WELL-PLANTED SURPRISE

Murphy Coach Andrew Hunter checked his morning paper to see who the Nobles play in the first round of the Division IV-AA playoffs. But he failed to notice that his team was seeded fourth in the division.

“I’m in shock,” said Hunter said. “I didn’t know until this afternoon when other coaches were congratulating me.”

Murphy (10-12 overall) finished second to Verbum Dei in the Santa Fe League. The Nobles drew last season’s finalist St. Bernard, which received an at-large bid, in the first round.

The Nobles are led by 5-9 senior guard Robert Carrillo, who is averaging 15.5 points a game, 5-11 junior guard Aaron Zeleya (12 points) and 6-0 junior guard Pierre Elize (8 points).

St. Bernard proved to be the better team and won, 72-64, Tuesday night.

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

Yeshiva boys’ basketball team practices outdoors because it does not have a gymnasium. After the third game of the season, the Panthers lost their best player to an injury. But that didn’t stop the team from winning the Liberty League for the first time since it joined in 1987.

Yeshiva (12-10, 11-3) beat Providence, 61-54, Saturday to extend its winning streak to five games. Michael Strapp, a 6-2 forward, scored a team-high 27 points for the Panthers.

Strapp, who has been averaging 14.5 points and eight rebounds a game, replaced 5-10 point guard David Perl as the team’s leading scorer. Perl dislocated his right ankle during the third game of the season.

The Panthers play South Bay Lutheran in the first round of the Southern Section V-AA playoffs Saturday night at the Westside JCC. They won their first playoff game in six years last season and hope to reach at least the quarterfinals.