Davis Believes in Young Burbank Basketball Team

Listen to him for five minutes and you get the feeling Jeff Davis would gladly pit his Burbank High basketball team against those high-priced fellows who will be showing off today in the NBA All-Star game.

Listen for five more minutes and you’d put your life’s savings on the Bulldogs.

Davis, a second-year coach, loves his guys.

He believes in them.

He tells them so.

And they hear it.

“He’s never doubted us, he’s really positive, even when things are not going well,” said Matt Baker, a junior who is the team’s leading scorer. “Sometimes he even makes us believe we are better than we actually are.”

That kind of belief can carry a team a long way. Burbank (16-8, 10-2) is the Foothill League champion for the first time since 1987.

“We’ve really caught fire,” Davis said. “I am so proud of these players. They work so hard and play so well together.”

Davis, 34, cut his teeth as an assistant at El Camino Real for several years, then served as head coach at Canoga Park before moving on to Burbank. He obviously possesses the enthusiasm it takes to build a quality program.

This team is not a one-year wonder.

“A couple of times this year we’ve had four non-senior starters,” Baker said. “It will be real interesting next year.”

Freshman guard Juni Williams, 14, is ranked among the top five ninth-graders in California by a basketball magazine. Sophomore Eric Owen, a 6-foot-5 forward, started at St. Genevieve last season before transferring. In addition to Baker, juniors Don Allado, Tom Ngo and Greg Church are strong contributors.

Seniors Carlos Baker and David Hunt provide maturity. There are a lot of names, but no one seems to want top billing. In a 60-53 victory over Saugus on Friday night, Burbank had 22 assists.

In addition to believing in yourself and being unselfish, Davis’ formula for success includes a fierce desire to win. After winning nine of 10 league games to clinch the title a week ago, Burbank fell to Hart on Tuesday.

“That loss reminded us how much we hate losing,” Davis said.

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Arthur Lee of North Hollywood became the regular-season scoring champion among City Section teams in the Valley by the slimmest of margins over Ronald Patterson of Grant.

In North Hollywood’s 62-55 victory over Grant on Friday night, Lee scored 27 to give him an average of 22.956 points a game.

Patterson scored 24, giving him an average of 22.954.

Lee got the scoring title and the regular-season finale, but Patterson and his Grant teammates got the big prize: The East Valley League championship. North Hollywood finished tied for second.

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In another tight shootout, Greg Minor of Canyon held off Brock Jacobsen of Crescenta Valley for the area Southern Section scoring title.

Jacobsen scored 25 in an 87-72 victory over Arcadia that gave the Falcons a share of the Pacific League championship, leaving him with an average of 27.0. Canyon was idle Friday night and Minor finished with a 27.6 average.

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Talk about reaching new heights.

The Birmingham High boys’ soccer team began the season with 5-5 junior Jose Velazquez playing goalie. But in December, Velazquez checked himself out of school, and news filtered back that he had gotten married.

So Coach Jose Freire moved on and up. One inch that is, to 5-6 junior Edgar Delgado, who became the starting keeper until Velazquez reappeared--still single--and reclaimed his job.

Chatsworth drubbed the Braves, 5-0, on Jan. 27, scoring several long-range goals that the diminutive tandem of Velazquez and Delgado would have needed stilts to stop.

Freire had seen enough. Now, Birmingham’s keeper is 6-1 Basil Grant, an erstwhile forward who has made the transition from shooting balls to stopping them.

“The team knew we were going to go as far as our goalies were going to take us,” said Freire, who is in his seventh season. “And after Chatsworth I decided that they had taken us as far as they could.”

The team’s fortunes have risen along with the height of its goalies: Birmingham (12-4-4, 9-3-2) clinched a share of the Northwest Valley Conference title with a 4-1 victory over Taft on Friday.

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While the Marmonte League has had four different girls’ basketball champions in the last six years, no such parity exists in many of the Valley-area leagues.

Last week, North Hollywood won its ninth Valley Pac-8 Conference title in 10 seasons. Alemany has won seven of the last eight Mission crowns, Hart five of six in the Foothill, and Palmdale eight of the last 12 Golden League championships. Village Christian has not lost an Alpha League game since 1992.

“Success breeds success,” said Village Christian Coach John Domke, whose team has won four of the last six Alpha titles. “Some schools get good players who come to their school based on past reputation.”

Said Hart Coach Dave Munroe: “You have to have good players, and coaching has something to do with it also.”

It doesn’t hurt to have stability in a program, either.

North Hollywood Coach Rich Allen and Palmdale Coach George Corisis are each in their 12th season. Coach Melissa Hearlihy has guided Alemany for 10 seasons and Domke and Munroe have been at their respective schools for six years.

Dave Desmond and Tris Wykes contributed to this column.