They’re Fast, Sharp and Ready--for High School : Basketball: Aided by a new district enrollment rule, talented ninth-graders are looking to transfer into programs that will make good use of their skills.

It seems so innocent.

Junior high students dribbling down the court, throwing no-look passes, making reverse layups and calling one another nicknames such as Baby Shaq and Baby Jordan.

But these baby-ballers range from 5-foot-7 to 6-4, can touch the rim and outshoot their fathers in a game of HORSE.

They are only ninth-graders, but they will soon be household names at perennial high school powers Crenshaw, Dorsey, Fremont and Washington.

Imari Washington of Horace Mann, Aaron Riley of James Foshay and Quincy Brown of Charles Drew are three of the area’s top junior high basketball players. They recently competed in the sixth annual After-School Alternative Program basketball tournament, organized by Muir Junior High teacher Ed Cabil. The tournament is sponsored by New Alternatives for Drug and Gang Elimination.

Washington, a 6-2 center, scored 21 points to lead Horace Mann to a 46-39 win over Drew in the ninth-grade boys’ finals Wednesday at Washington High.

Most of these young stars are 15 or younger, but they have already been scrutinized by talent evaluators. Beginning with the 1994-95 school year, Los Angeles Unified School District students will no longer have to attend neighboring high schools or receive a permit to go to a school outside their area. They can attend any school within the district, providing the school has room for them.

Area basketball coaches who attended the tournament believe the open-enrollment rule will intensify the recruiting of Central City athletes.

“The (school district) has ruined the idea of neighborhood schools,” said Drew Junior High Coach John Kamae. “Recruiting will become a bigger problem because kids will be electing to look at schools outside their neighborhood.”

Even first-year Locke Coach Mike Crumline agreed: “I think the district made a mistake. If they think they had a problem with recruiting before, they’re going to have a serious problem now. The thing that makes it bad is that, at this age, basketball should be something that is fun. Now we’re putting pressure on kids to make a decision I’m not sure they’re old enough to make.”

In the past, students who attended Horace Mann went to Crenshaw. Foshay has been a feeder school to Dorsey and Manual Arts, and Drew students went to Locke or Washington.

With the change in district rules, students can shop around to choose the school that best fits their athletic and academic needs.

Although he sat quietly in the stands, Crumline was one of four coaches who made his presence felt. Dorsey boys’ Coach Kevin Gibson and Fremont girls’ Coach Mat Taylor also attended the tournament.

Gibson said he wanted to “advertise” his interest in the players. “If you don’t show up, kids are going to think I’m not interested in them,” he said.

However, Gibson disagreed with the idea that open enrollment will affect the distribution of players to area schools. “Kids can go wherever they want,” he said. “All they have to do is enroll in a magnet program. There’s not too much influence from one school to another.”

Washington boys’ Coach Andy Davis, whose school hosted the tournament, said that open enrollment will affect the minor sports more than football or basketball.

“The top players are going to schools with the highest profile, especially with open enrollment,” he said. “You give a player a choice between Duke, Arkansas and Rider, where do you think he’s going to go? It’s the same with high school basketball.

“But I think the biggest impact will be felt in the minor sports like tennis, volleyball and cross-country.”

Still, the top junior high players are narrowing their list of schools. Others remain indifferent.

“It doesn’t matter. I just want to go to school and play,” Riley said.

James Hawthorne, a 6-2 1/2 center at Drew, wants to go to Fremont but is also considering Locke, Dorsey and Westchester because his friends go there. Teammate Davon Benjamin, a 5-7 point guard, lists Westchester, Locke and Fremont as his top choices. Brian Webb, a 6-1 forward, likes Fremont.

Washington, of Horace Mann, wants to go to Fairfax.

Foshay point guard Johnny Chavarria is part of the USC Academic Initiative and has been directed by the program to attend Los Angeles or Manual Arts.

Not one of the players interviewed mentioned Crenshaw, which has won two consecutive State Division I Championships.

So are these players as innocent as Crumline believes?

Said Brown: “I’m considering Locke and Fremont, but you will have to talk to my sister. She’s my agent.”