Home on the Road

The boys’ basketball faithful from Pacific Hills High in West Hollywood gathered at Brentwood High on Tuesday night for an opening-round state tournament game.

Brentwood wasn’t the school’s opponent, however. It was Reedley Immanuel, from near Fresno.

But the gathering could have taken place at any number of gyms, because Pacific Hills doesn’t have its own and plays at neighboring schools’ when it hosts a game.

The Bruins often play home games at Daniel Murphy High or West Los Angeles College. Two years ago, when Murphy wasn’t available because of remodeling, Pacific Hills played at West Torrance, a 40-minute drive.

Administrators from Pacific Hills chose Brentwood on this occasion because the rental fee is a reasonable $150 and the school is located near many of the students’ homes.

“We tend to stay away from Brentwood during the regular season because we’re in the same league and that would be a bit weird for our kids,” Coach John Bobich said.

The travel inconveniences don’t bother Pacific Hills’ fans. It helps that Bobich has won four Southern Section Division V-A titles in the last five years, including one with a 67-53 victory over Pilgrim last Saturday.

Henry Davis, whose son Kamaal is a junior guard at Pacific Hills, said despite the frequent changes in venue, he has never shown up at the wrong school.

“This is like a family around here, and if there is a site change, we always make sure everyone knows about it,” Davis said. “We always find the right gym.”

Playing home games at another school is common in football because many area schools lack proper facilities. But most schools, even the smallest ones, have their own gym.

Pacific Hills’ lack of athletic facilities surprised Conrad Adamczak when he toured the campus nearly two years ago. After attending Beverly Hills High as a freshman, the 6-foot-4 Adamczak was looking to continue his basketball career at a private school that would give him more academic support.

“As I was walking through the school, I kept looking for the gym,” Adamczak said. “Finally, I asked where the gym was, and they said there wasn’t one. I was shocked.”

The shock waned when Adamczak passed by the trophy case in the lobby and saw it full of basketball trophies and plaques. Although Beverly Hills has three indoor basketball courts, Adamczak decided he would rather win titles on the road than play in his own gym.

The junior forward, who leads the team in scoring and rebounding, has won two section championship games with Pacific Hills. He scored 25 points Tuesday in a 73-47 victory over Immanuel in the first round of the state tournament.

The lack of a campus gym also didn’t deter Bobich, who coached at his alma mater, San Pedro Mary Star, before taking over at Pacific Hills in 1988. A former basketball and baseball player, Bobich was attracted by the school’s academic commitment.

In the last three years, 100% of the school’s graduates have been accepted to four-year universities. Incoming student-athletes are discouraged from putting sports first.

“If they’re coming here solely to be part of a winning basketball team, they won’t make it,” Bobich said. “The academics will get in their way. They won’t make the grade.”

Those who do get in and want to play basketball will be challenged. One-fourth of the school’s 120 students is out for the sport and spends much of the year working on the game.

Scrounging around for a court is part of it. Occasionally, the team practices on the school’s lone outdoor court, which also doubles as a parking lot. Most of the time, the team loads into a van and heads to one of two local recreation centers.

To compensate the recreation centers, Bobich and his staff put on frequent clinics for local youngsters.

“You learn to take what you can get,” Adamczak said. “Heck, we’ll play in someone’s backyard if that’s all that’s available. After the first day here, I forgot about not having a gym. It just doesn’t matter anymore.”

Said Bobich: “You can’t wish for something you don’t have. The inconveniences are overlooked. That’s what we preach.”

There is always hope. Principal Richard Makoff and the school’s board of trustees are looking into the possibility of moving the school to a larger facility, because it has almost outgrown its current space.

“We’re still a relatively young school, so we probably won’t be moving any time real soon,” Makoff said. “Land is very expensive, so you make do with what you have. We’re more concerned with how our teams conduct themselves than where they play.”

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Compton Dominguez will play host to Irvine Woodbridge tonight at 7:30 in a Southern Regional Division II boys’ basketball playoff game that is certain to sell out early.

Top-seeded Dominguez, the defending state Division II champion, is led by talented forwards Jason Thomas and Tayshaun Prince and point guard Kenny Brunner. Woodbridge features 6-10 center Chris Burgess, who has committed to Duke.

“We certainly know what they can do,” Burgess said of Dominguez. “We know we have nothing to lose. We’ll go there, try to play our game and see what happens. But even if we don’t win, the season will not have been a failure.”

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No Division I school has won the boys’ and girls’ state title in the same year, but Crenshaw has kept its hopes alive.

The Crenshaw girls won their Southern Regional opener, 73-52, over Oxnard, and the Crenshaw boys routed Etiwanda, 80-57.

The teams will play a doubleheader tonight at Cal State Dominguez Hills. The girls take on Crescenta Valley at 5:30 and the boys play Fresno Clovis West at 7:30.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

STATE TOURNAMENT

Southern Regional, Second Round

BOYS

* DIVISION I: Westchester (25-6) vs. Santa Ana Mater Dei (31-2) at Ocean View High; Clovis West (25-6) vs. Crenshaw (24-3) at CS Dominguez Hills.

* DIVISION II: Irvine Woodbridge (28-3) at Compton Dominguez (26-5); Bakersfield Highland (28-4) at Oceanside El Camino (30-2).

* DIVISION III: Tehachapi (22-3) at North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake (33-1); Inglewood Morningside (22-6) vs. San Diego University (24-4) at University of San Diego.

* DIVISION IV: Santa Fe Springs St. Paul (18-13) vs. Santa Monica Crossroads (28-3) at Loyola Marymount; Santa Ana Calvary Chapel (26-5) at Bakersfield Garces (25-6).

* DIVISION V: Pacific Hills (23-8) at San Diego Horizon (28-1), 8:30 p.m.; Pasadena Poly (28-1) at Solana Beach Santa Fe Christian (17-12).

GIRLS

* DIVISION I: Harbor City Narbonne (22-5) at Ventura Buena (27-2); Crescenta Valley (29-3) vs. Crenshaw (24-3) at Cal State Dominguez Hills, 5:30 p.m.

* DIVISION II: Edison (25-4) at Brea-Olinda (28-3); Moorpark (26-3) at Laguna Hills (28-3).

* DIVISION III: Mission Hills Alemany (24-5) at Torrance Bishop Montgomery (26-3); Pasadena Muir (25-7) at Chula Vista Eastlake (26-3).

* DIVISION IV: Santa Ynez (25-3) at Burbank Bell-Jeff (30-1); Cerritos Valley Christian (27-3) at Playa del Rey St. Bernard (23-6).

* DIVISION V: Covina Western Christian (23-4) at San Luis Obispo Mission Prep (22-7); El Cajon Christian (27-1) at San Diego Horizon (24-8), 6:30 p.m.

* All games tonight at 7:30 p.m., unless noted