HIGH SCHOOL NOTEBOOK

Isn’t it great when things go as planned?

City Section officials knew what they were doing when they drew up the boys’ basketball schedules for its three new leagues.

Today’s games mark the end of the first half of league play and it just so happens that the best teams are matched in each league.

In the West Valley League, Cleveland (13-6, 4-0) faces Taft (14-1, 4-0) for sole possession of first place.

The stakes are the same for Sylmar (8-9, 4-0) and Monroe (14-5, 4-0), which will battle for the top spot in the Valley Mission League.

And Grant (4-15, 4-0) has to beat North Hollywood (15-4, 3-1) to maintain sole possession of first place in the Sunset Six League.

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While teams share similar practice drills, each coach has different names for them.

At Cleveland, an exhausting defensive slide drill is known as the “I hate Taft” drill.

“I think [former Coach Bobby] Braswell started it,” Coach Adam Levitt said.

Levitt, 27, who endured the drill as a Cleveland player for Braswell in the late 1980s, said the drill is named for its biggest rival. And players seem to love it.

“That’s our hardest drill in practice; everybody goes all out,” said Yashar Mehrabani, a senior point guard. “It’s a hard drill, but that’s why it’s named after [Taft].”