Amaya’s Status Is Up in Air

The status of Van Nuys Grant boys’ soccer player Johny Amaya remained unchanged Monday as City Section officials continued their investigation into allegations that Amaya violated California Interscholastic Federation rules by playing in a Sunday league game Feb. 9.

E.B. Madha, the coach at Lake Balboa Birmingham, accused Amaya of playing in the game before Friday’s City Section playoff opener between Birmingham and Grant.

Although Amaya and his father claim he was in San Pedro on a family outing at the time of the game in question, Grant Coach Frank Ortiz kept his 25-goal scorer out of Friday’s 5-1 victory over Birmingham rather than risk forfeiting the win later.

Grant (18-1-5), the second-seeded team in the City playoffs, plays host to San Fernando in a second-round game Wednesday.

-- John Ortega

Justin Greenberg, a first-year coach at Los Angeles Windward High, heads a girls’ soccer team that is young and talented.

Among the team’s 18 players are nine freshmen who have accounted for nearly one third of the Wildcats’ 113 goals and provided an infusion of club-soccer experience that has helped Windward (21-0) win its first Liberty League title and advance to the second round of the Southern Section Division VI playoffs.

The Wildcats, top-seeded in the division after spending most of the season atop the section coaches’ poll, travel to Gardena Serra for a 3 p.m. game today.

“Some of these kids have a really nice feel for the game,” Greenberg said. “We’re trying to utilize them and find the best way for them to express that.”

Freshmen starters are sweeper Nicole Bernet (eight goals) and midfielders Kate Bluestone (six goals) and Sarah Scheuer (five goals).

The team’s top scorers are sophomore striker Julia Cummings (30 goals, 14 assists) and senior halfback Leslie Fischman (22 goals, 14 assists).

-- Lauren Peterson