Louisville Better Out of Its League

The Louisville High girls’ basketball team is in fourth place in the Mission League, but the Royals easily could be leading the Tri-Valley League.

The Royals (14-4) have struggled to a 3-4 record in Mission League play but have won nonleague games against St. Bonaventure, La Reina, Fillmore and Bishop Diego, the top four teams from the Tri-Valley.

“Yeah, maybe we can put up a Tri-Valley League championship banner,” Louisville Coach Paula Getty-Shearer said.

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Dome game: Because of scheduling conflicts, Louisville’s Feb. 11 Mission League game with Alemany has been moved to Feb. 12 at Alemany’s dome gym. It will mark only the third time in three seasons that the Indians will have played a girls’ basketball game in their temporary on-campus facility.

Alemany, which lost its gym in the Northridge earthquake, has since played most of its home games at L.A. Baptist High.

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Making Point: Nell Becker, career leader in assists and three-point baskets for the Nordhoff High girls’ basketball team, has committed to Point Loma Nazarene College, an NAIA school in San Diego, said Ranger Coach Ted Cotti.

SOCCER

Politicking: Last week three of the region’s boys’ soccer players--Royal’s Sean Gesell, Kennedy’s Greg Avila and Crespi’s Justin Canel--were named to the All-Far West team by the National Soccer Coaches Assn. of America.

That the three, all seniors, were nominated and selected over players such as Harvard-Westlake’s Zach Schwartz, Burroughs’ Miguel Meneses, Palmdale’s Kim Britton or Oak Park’s Aaron Benditson raised eyebrows among local observers.

Royal Coach Kevin Corley, an NSCAA member, admitted politics are involved.

“There are a number of members in each region whose responsibility it is to keep an eye out for potential nominees,” Corley said. “But after a committee votes on those individuals the way it often seems to work is it’s those coaches’ kids who make it. And some of them are not necessarily the best players.”

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Comeback: Defender Courtney Garmon of Ventura High is expected back from a knee injury in time for the playoffs, her father, Everette Garmon, said Wednesday.

Courtney Garmon, a third-team All-Southern Section Division II pick last season, suffered a second degree tear of the medial collateral ligament against St. Bonaventure on Dec. 3.