Playoff Ban for Westchester Girls

The Westchester girls’ basketball team has been banned from next season’s City Section playoffs because three players who participated in last season’s playoffs were inadvertently left off a mandatory eligibility list.

Under City Rule 234, if a team uses an ineligible player during the playoffs, it is banned from playoff participation the following season.

Westchester intends to appeal the decision by the City rules committee because the three players would have been eligible had they been on the list.

The sanctions come at a time when Westchester’s boys’ basketball team will be allowed back into the playoffs after being banned last season because of an alleged recruiting violation.

-- Eric Sondheimer

Football

The summer passing season, during which high school teams play each other in seven-on-seven competitions, continues Saturday at Huntington Beach Edison.

Among the 16 teams participating are Southern Section champions Newhall Hart (Division II) and West Covina South Hills (Division VII) and section semifinalists Santa Ana Mater Dei and Los Alamitos (Division I) and San Clemente (Division II).

Hart and Mater Dei will meet in a scrimmage at 11 a.m. Scrimmages will also be held at 9 and 10 a.m., and championship play begins at 1 p.m.

Passing tournaments are also scheduled today at La Canada St. Francis, and today and Saturday at Covina High.

Baseball

Ryan Babineau, a catcher from Rancho Cucamonga Etiwanda, and Ryan Tucker, a pitcher from Temple City, have been selected to the West team for the AFLAC All-American baseball game in Aberdeen, Md.

The game will be played Aug. 6, and televised on Aug. 8 by Fox Sports Net.

Soccer

Nine Southern California teams have qualified to participate in the U.S. Youth national soccer championships, July 20-25, in Orlando, Fla.

The girls’ teams that won their divisions at the recently completed Region IV championships in Spokane, Wash., are the San Diego Surf White’s under-18 and under-13 squads from Del Mar, the Southern California United’s under-17 team from Agoura, the Slammers’ under-16 team from Newport Beach and the Eagles under-14 team from Camarillo.

The qualifying boys’ teams are the ISC Strikers’ under-17 squad from Irvine, the Arsenal FC’s under-15 team from Alta Loma, the Celtic Harps’ under-14 team from Upland and the Valley United Blast’s under-12 team from Granada Hills.

Last year, three teams from the Southland won national championships: the San Diego Surf’s under-16 girls’ squad, the Slammers’ under-14 girls’ team and the Southern California United’s under-14 boys’ team.

For information, including schedules and results, go to www.usysa.org.

-- Bob Rohwer