NEWS FLASH

Steve Thompson has been hired as baseball coach at Granada Hills High, said Bob Weinberg, assistant principal.

Thompson replaces Darryl Stroh, who resigned after last season. Thompson was the junior varsity coach at Chatsworth the past four years.

Boys’ basketball teams from Harvard-Westlake and Antelope Valley highs have been selected to participate in the third Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Challenge Jan. 20 at Pauley Pavilion.

Harvard-Westlake will face Fairfax and Antelope Valley will play Long Beach Poly as part of the seven-game schedule.

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Damion Morbley is academically ineligible to play basketball for Cal State Northridge this season. Morbley averaged a team-high 15.4 points a game last season, though he played in only 11 games before quitting after a dispute with former Coach Pete Cassidy.

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Former Quartz Hill High pitcher Bryan Garcia, the 1996 Times Valley player of the year who signed with the Oakland Athletics after being drafted in the 34th round, will play in the Arizona Instructional League. Garcia was 4-2 with a 4.25 earned-run average for the Scotsdale A’s last summer.