It Should Be Another Fall Classic in East L.A.

Garfield’s football team is 2-3-1 and Roosevelt’s is 1-5, but that doesn’t figure to discourage more than 22,000 fans expected to attend Friday night’s annual East Los Angeles Classic at East Los Angeles College.

The game will be the 62nd between the schools in a series that began in 1926. Garfield has won the last six games, including last year’s 27-23 victory. Roosevelt leads the series, 32-22-7.

Al Padilla, an assistant coach at Garfield who graduated from Roosevelt in 1948 and has coached at both schools, said records mean little in this game.

“Both teams are struggling a little bit, but once those kids get on the field in front of that many people, they’re going to feel like they’re playing in the Super Bowl,” Padilla said. “It’s going to be another great game.”

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The City Section rules committee earlier this week granted Palisades running back Larry Williams unrestricted eligibility that will allow him to play for the Dolphins the rest of the season.

Williams gained 132 yards and scored two touchdowns two weeks ago in a 24-7 victory over Manual Arts. Before last Friday’s Coastal Conference showdown with top-ranked Westchester, Palisades was notified by section officials that Williams could not play pending an investigation into questions about residency. Westchester defeated Palisades, 12-0.

Williams moved to Los Angeles from Texas and transferred to Palisades a few weeks ago.

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Dave Bessler, coach of the Van Nuys girls’ volleyball team, has appealed to the state California Interscholastic Federation office to have sanctions against the Wolves overturned.

Bessler, however, made the appeal without the backing of school administrators, whose appeals to the section and a special appeals committee had been denied.

Van Nuys, led by UCLA-bound Angela Eckmier, is 8-1 overall and 6-0 in conference play but is banned from the playoffs for using an ineligible player during the playoffs last year.