Hart Has Share of Good Sports

Stocked with four athletes who have legitimate Division I college scholarship potential, it’s surprising that Hart High is not favored to win the Foothill League boys’ basketball title.

Perhaps it’s because those four athletes excel in other sports.

Forward David Neill, who passed for more than 3,000 yards and was named All-Southern Section as Hart’s quarterback, has already committed to Nevada on a football scholarship.

J.T. Stotts, last season’s Foothill League most valuable player in basketball, batted .341 last baseball season and has attracted Division I interest in that sport.

Forwards Jerry Owens and Scott Hunt are only juniors, but are expected to be among the most heavily recruited football players in the region next season.

Owens caught 63 passes for 1,423 yards and 18 touchdowns last season and Hunt led the Hart football team with 108 tackles as a linebacker. Both were named All-Southern Section.

But Hart Coach David Montgomery, whose team has won the last two Foothill League titles and six of the last seven, says that just having athletes might be enough to overcome favorites Valencia and Burroughs.

“We might not have the best basketball players, but we have athletes,” Montgomery said. “And that counts for a lot. When you have competitive athletes, you can’t ever count them out.”