Valley Teams Get No Respect for Playoffs

Respect still comes slowly for City Section boys’ basketball teams in the region.

Sylmar and Cleveland, the top Valley high school teams in the section, were awarded underwhelming seedings for the City playoffs that will begin Friday.

Sylmar (22-5), the Valley Pac-8 Conference champion, is seeded No. 6 in the City Championship bracket and will host No. 11-seeded Carson in a first-round game.

Sylmar was nominated for the No. 4 spot, but it was awarded to Fremont in a vote by the seeding committee. Westchester got the nod over Sylmar for the No. 5 spot.

“Everybody doesn’t respect the Valley schools as far as being a contender for the City championship,” said George Wrighster, senior forward for Sylmar.

“That bothers us because we have a legitimate team and a legitimate chance at winning the championship.”

Then again, a team from the Valley has not made it to an upper-division City final since Cleveland lost to Crenshaw in 1989.

Sylmar, which won the lower-rung City Section 3-A Division championship last season, probably will play third-seeded Crenshaw by winning in the first round.

Ninth-seeded Cleveland (20-4), which has won 16 of 17 games, travels to No. 8 Palisades. The Cavaliers lost to Palisades, 55-50, in the semifinals of the Beverly Hills tournament in December.

Palisades finished fourth in the Coastal Conference and Cleveland won the Northwest Valley Conference, but it is the Cavaliers who will be traveling.

“I don’t see how we don’t get a home game,” complained Co-Coach Adam Levitt of Cleveland.

Cleveland probably will play top-seeded Fairfax in the second round if it can get past Palisades.

Tenth-seeded Chatsworth (15-6) travels to play No. 7 Washington in a rematch of a first-round game last season won by Washington.

Grant (19-6), seeded No. 12, drew a tough opening game at Westchester, defending City champion.

North Hollywood (20-5) is seeded No. 4 and El Camino Real (21-4) is seeded No. 5 in the City Championship girls’ bracket, setting up a potential quarterfinal game between the Valley powers.

“We’ll have to take care of round one [against No. 13 Franklin], but I think it would be a great game, a super game [in the quarterfinals],” said Coach Rich Allen of North Hollywood.

North Hollywood defeated El Camino Real, 61-41, in the second game of the season.

In the lower-level Division Championship, Kennedy is seeded No. 2 for the boys and Chatsworth is seeded No. 2 for the girls.