Coach Takes a Stand on Recruiting

Frustrated three years ago with the seemingly anything-goes environment in which players moved from school to school, Coach Joseph Aihara of Anaheim Western renamed his school’s eight-team boys’ basketball tournament the Non-Recruiter’s tournament.

“It was the state of high school basketball,” he said as his reason for the name change.

With new rules forcing transfer students who don’t change residences to sit out a season, Aihara says he believes there is less recruiting going on today. But he kept the name of the tournament this season out of recognition that those coaches participating are doing their best to uphold the principles of high school athletics.

“All eight teams have coaches who, I know, are building their programs with guys who were supposed to go to their schools,” Aihara said. “We just want to be competitive with one another. What other schools are doing is their business. There’s some fun [with the tournament name], but it’s what I believe.”

Tustin, Garden Grove, Westminster, Garden Grove Santiago, Anaheim, Norwalk Glenn and Garden Grove Rancho Alamitos were the other schools that competed in the tournament.

Garden Grove defeated Anaheim in overtime to win the tournament Saturday behind senior most valuable player David Richmond, who averaged more than 30 points in four games.

“It’s competitive, balanced, and all the teams exhibited great sportsmanship,” Garden Grove Coach Ken Frank said.

Some might be offended that the Non-Recruiter’s tournament implies that all other schools are recruiting. That’s not the case. What Aihara did was take a stand to embrace the CIF concept of “pursuing victory with honor.”

“It’s neighborhood schools with neighborhood kids,” Frank said of the tournament. “It’s a throwback.”

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In another sign reflecting the state of high school basketball, a club coach went up to the stepfather of 6-foot-7 freshman Jin Soo Kim of Van Nuys Montclair Prep in the first half of his first game, gave him a business card and brochure, and made a pitch for future consideration.

It shows that even an exchange student from South Korea who speaks little English is not immune to the all-out competition among outsiders trying to gain influence over and allegiance of top teenage basketball players.

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Taking advantage of his basketball team’s City Section Championship division title last season, Coach Derrick Taylor of Woodland Hills Taft said his school has received a three-year commitment from Nike to supply $30,000 worth of shoes and equipment to his team.

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One of the most impressive individual performances this football season has been turned in by 6-0, 170-pound senior defensive end Ben Viramontes of South Gate. He has been credited with 34 sacks in 13 games going into today’s 5 p.m. City Invitational division final against Fairfax at the Coliseum.

His sack total tops the state record of 33 established by Shaun Cody of Hacienda Heights Los Altos in 2000.

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Former Sylmar football coach Jeff Engilman is expected to end his one-year retirement next season.

Engilman, 56, who coached for 29 years, is interested in becoming the football coach at a City Section high school scheduled to open in July in Arleta.

The school’s principal, Linda Calvo, was Engilman’s principal at Sylmar. It will draw students from San Fernando, Sun Valley Poly and North Hills Monroe and have a freshman-sophomore team its first year.

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Eric Sondheimer can be reached at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.