Big John

High school sports serve as a rite of passage for the athletes who play them, the student, friends and families that gather to watch them and the sportswriters who cut their professional teeth covering them.

High school football games in Los Angeles date to 1896, but it wasn’t until 1934 that the Los Angeles City Section was born.

The Southern Section was established in 1912 and held its first athletic competition in 1913.

This story is not an attempt to document the achievements of every outstanding athlete, coach and team that made a mark, for there are far too many to chronicle here.

Rather, it is a history lesson of sorts told by current and former Times staff writers who have written about Southland prep athletes. Most of the writers graduated from Los Angeles-area high schools. And while many have gone on to cover college and professional sports as beat writers or columnists, all maintain indelible images of the prep athletes they watched, covered and, in some instances, competed with and against on the playing field.

*

Gail Goodrich of Sun Valley Poly, Sidney Wicks of Hamilton, Marques Johnson of Crenshaw and a few other Los Angeles products had more illustrious college and pro basketball careers, but during the years I covered preps for The Times (1979-84), swingman John Williams of Crenshaw made his mark as perhaps the best high school basketball player in City Section history.

Williams, 6 feet 8, led Crenshaw to the 1983 state championship as a junior. It was the first of legendary Coach Willie West’s record eight state titles with the Cougars.

Williams didn’t merely beat opposing players, he embarrassed them.

NBA scouts said Williams could have gone straight from Crenshaw to the pros, but Williams decided on college, touching off a ferocious recruiting war between Nevada Las Vegas and Louisiana State.

Williams did not appear at a news conference when it was announced he would attend LSU. Opposing coaches charged that LSU had broken NCAA rules, but LSU was cleared of any wrongdoing and Williams led the Tigers to the NCAA Final Four in 1986 before he was selected in the first round of the NBA draft by the then-Washington Bullets.

Williams ate his way out of the NBA, ballooning to more than 300 pounds after knee surgery. But those who watched him dominate in high school will never forget the man-child that was John Williams.