Sporting Attitude

At a time when human relations experts say the Los Angeles area is divided into geographic enclaves, the Inner City Games forms a kind of cultural bridge, as inner-city Angelinos meet their suburban neighbors.

For a group of Ventura girls, the meeting ground is a basketball court. Organizers hope that through sports, boys and girls from 9 to 18 not only sharpen their athletic skills but also learn firsthand about other racial, ethnic and cultural groups.

Jessica Espinoza, a 14-year-old basketball player from Ventura, doesn’t think in such lofty terms. To her, it’s simple competition--the learning is merely a byproduct.

“It’s a different world. It’s busier, and people say it’s so bad,” Jessica said of some of the urban neighborhoods in which they compete. “But, we’re just going to play basketball.”

Four weeks of competition are culminating in championship finals this week among hundreds of teams drawn primarily from community centers and clubs, said Jose Correa, sports director of the Inner City Games. Up to 30,000 boys and girls participate in one form or another in competitions ranging from boxing to essay writing.

Jessica’s team, the Ventura Galaxy, met a squad from urban Los Angeles, the Crenshaw Fundamental Hoops, at the Hollenbeck Youth Center in Boyle Heights for a championship game Thursday.

Sam Triana, coach of the Ventura Galaxy, said that at first his team was hesitant about playing in Boyle Heights, an area known more for its gang problem than for its hard-working families.

“We were kind of scared coming in here, but everyone’s been very nice,” Triana said. “Each time [the Galaxy] played there, they felt more comfortable.”

And as the Galaxy girls boarded their van for the tournament, their concerns weren’t about dangerous neighborhoods or cultural communication. They, and their Los Angeles rivals, speak the language of basketball.

Crenshaw Hoops Coach Marshall Dismuke said that although his team lost, what mattered more was that teams from different areas learned to respect each other.

“I love it. That shows people from other places that no matter what color or race, you can still get along,” Dismuke said.

The games, the brainchild of Hollenbeck Executive Director Danny Hernandez, began in 1991. In the beginning, participants were primarily from the inner city, but competitors today come from a much wider geographic area.

Thursday night, the Ventura Galaxy played the Heats from Monterey Park for the championship in the 13-to-15 age division. The Heats took the championship with a 35 to 25 win. On hand to present medals to the competing teams was actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, the chairman of the Inner City Games.

The games’ sponsoring organization, the Hollenbeck Youth Center, began in 1971 as a boxing club in a bomb shelter underneath Hollenbeck Police station, said Rudy DeLeon, one of the club’s founding members.

In 1977, the club moved half a block west of the police station to a one-story building.

By 1998, it had been expanded into a sprawling three-story center equipped with a basketball court, a boxing ring and a weight room.

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In addition, the center offers computer training and programs geared toward at-risk youth, such as trips to colleges and cultural institutions.

Joe Hicks, director of the Los Angeles Human Relations commission, said programs such as the Inner City Games help teach acceptance and respect to youths of different backgrounds without having “adults wag their fingers at them and saying, ‘we have to tolerate each other.’ ”

The athletic competition brings “respect in a genuine way,” said Hicks, “because it is held in a more relaxed atmosphere, where kids play on a more level playing field.”

Frank Villalobos, president of the Eastside architectural firm Barrio Planners, said the games played a key role in helping youths come together in the aftermath of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

The ideas of the games, which are privately funded, have spread to 11 other cities, and Schwarzenegger also heads the national Inner City Games Foundation.

Each city has devised its own way to carry out the games, said Bonnie Reiss, the Santa Monica-based national director.

The Ventura Galaxy players wanted to participate because they are highly competitive, said Coach Triana. Most of the girls will attend Ventura’s Buena High School, which has a well-known basketball coach and program.

Though the girls don’t pull any punches on the court, Triana said that both the Galaxy players and their families felt welcome by the parents of rival teams.

“When the girls came in, they were wearing war paint. They were really trying to intimidate us before we played,” he said. “After the game, they were super nice. We earned their respect.”

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’ We were kind of scared coming in here, but everyone’s been very nice. Each time [the Galaxy] played [in Boyle Heights] they felt more comfortable.’

Sam Triana, Ventura Galaxy coach