ATE BY STATE
*
NEW REGIONAL COVERAGE- STATE BY STATE
fourth-quarter rally which fell six points short. Montclair won the Small Schools title, defeating Huntington Valley Christian 47-43. Redding Enterprise survived the Northern Section AAA-AA tournament, nipping Chico Pleasant Valley 50-49 to finish 19-6 on the season. Chico High outscored Gridley 76-51 for consolation honors. In Class A competition, Sutter defeated Herlong 76-69 for top honors, while Los Molinos beat Pierce of Arbuckle 7962 for third. Victory Christian beat Foothill Christian 60-48 of the Christian League championship. In the California Regional Tournament of Champions in Oakland, Oakland Fremont, the top-ranked basketball team in all of California - from Oakland to San Diego, and beyond - crunched Oakland St. Joseph 61-38 in the championship game. San Jose of Del Mar blasted San Francisco Mission 92-76 for third place honors, while Cupertino Monte Vista edged Fresno Roosevelt 52-49 for fifth place. According to the experts - whoever and wherever they may be - the top players during the 1976-77 season were guards like Tom Freeman (6-3), who had great teammates at Lynwood in junior Tyren Naulls and New York transfer Tim Hornsby (6-5); Tony Anderson (6-4) of Victor Valley Victorville; Marv DeLoatch (6-6) from Novato, who reportedly has a 7foot teammate in 15-year-old Rodge Harris; and Cliff Robinson (6-8) of Oakland Castlemont, to name a few. Underclassmen who dominated play in California include Lional Marquetti (6-7) from Los Angeles Verbum Dei; Greg Goorjian (6-2) of Crescenta Valley LaCrescenta; and Naulls of Lynwood, who is only a junior. The top scorer in California was reported to be Mitchell Lilly of San Diego Madison, who averaged 31.9 points per game during the regular season and Greg Goorjian who averaged 31.2 points during the regular season, but upped that mark to 32.5 after the playoffs. And remember, he's only a junior.
California Prep Cage Ran kings Class AAAA Oakland Fremont .... :. . . . . . . 25-1 -Pasadena· ..... ~ ............ :·. '29-3 Long Beach Poly . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-7 Los Angeles Manual Arts· .·.... 25-1 Compton .......... : . ... ·.. 0 ·~ • • 22-4 · Long Beach-Millikan .......... 25-5 Oakland McCiym~mds .. , ...... '19-4 8. Santee Santana . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 26-5 9. Los Angeles Verbum Dei ... : . 21-3 10. La Mesa Helix ........ : ... , .. 27-2 CLASS AAA 1. Fallbrook . , ......... ·. . . . . . . . . 24-1 2 .. Fremont Washington . . . . . . . . . 25-3 3. ·corona del Mar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25-5 4. Lemoore : : . : ............. :. ·. 24-4 5. Chula Vista Bonita Vista . . . . . . 26-2 6. Carmichael .Jesuit .............. · 28-5 7. Riverside Ramona·.: ........... 26-6 8. Carson....................... 18-5 9. Novato , ..................... 25-7 10. La Habra .................... 25~4 Class-AA · 1.. Stockton St. Mary's .......· . . . 28-6 2. Oxnard Channel Islands ...... 27-3 3. Rowland Heights ........ , . . . . 25-4 4. Victor Valley ........ 0 • • • • • • • • • 28-2 5. Santa Rosa Montgomery . . . . . 23-5 6. Carmel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-4 7. City of Industry Workman ..... 24-6 8. Sonoma ... : . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-4 9. Sunnymead Moreno ~alley - ..·. 22-4 1.0. Aburn· Placer ................ -23-5 Class A 1. Perris ......................·.. 21-5 2. San Andreas Calveras ....... ·: 25..:2 3. Riverdale ................. .-. . 26-3 4. Sang us ...•.... : . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-6. 5. Gridley ...................... 19-8 6. Morro Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-6 7. Fowler < ••••.••• : •••••••••.••• 21-4 8. Willows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-6 9. Sutter ....................... 25-5 10. Hughson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-8 Class B 1. Eureka St. Bernard's ......... 18-5 2. Los Angeles 'Lutheran . . . . . . . . 24-3 3. Hoopa ............... : ....... 15-5 4. Emeryille Emery . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-3 5. San Pedro Mary Star ......... -20-4 6. Herlong .... : ................ ·22-7 7. Los Molinos .. :. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-4 8: Ontario Christian ............. 18-7 9. Ripon Ch~istian .............. 21-7 10. Calistoga ...................... 17-6 · ·Class C· · 1: Van Nuys Montclair . . . . . . . . . . . 21-5 2. Fremont Christian . . . . . . . . . . . . 26-4 3. Costa Mesa-Huntington ....... 19-5 4.Saratoga Valley .............. 20-7 5. Arcadia Rio Hondo ........... 19-6 6. Carmichael Victory ........... 17-4 7. Oakland Royce .............. 18-7 8. Lee Vining ................. ·; ... _16-4 .1. 2. 3. . 4. 5. 6. 7.
During the girls tournament in the North, Reo Americana handed Bella Vista their first defeat in 31 games, 48-45 for the championship, to finish 21-2 on the season. Bella Vista had posted one of the most impressive girls basketball records in the country before the loss, including victories over top teams from the South. Davis, sparked all season by one of the top girl cagers in the West, got 35 points from all-stater Denice Curry in downing Merced 60-29 for third place. Curry, a 6-1 Complied by Cal-HI Sports, senior, twice scored 45 points while hitting · Nelson Tennis editor 65 percent from the floor and 82 percent from the line. She averaged 32.3 points per . game, 18 boards and scored over 40 points Northern Section team, Oak land four different times. With her in the lineup, Davis compiled a 70-5 record and won Fremont. And at the end of each season, newstwo section championships: Bound for UCLA on a full-ride, Denice will also get a papers throughout the country search for tryout for the World Games this summer. parting words for those schoolboy coaches who have announced their retirement after St. Mary's of Stockton posted an im- years of dedication to the sport. Calipressive 28-6 record in boys AA competifornia is no different, and after 24 years of tion, and it's interesting to note that the coaching high school ·basketball, 19 of final cage rankings covering the entire them at Huntington Beach, Elmer Combs state, compiled by Nelson Tennis of Caldecided to step down to devote full-time as Hi Sports, gives the mythical title to a athletic director. · ·PREP I JUNE-JULY 1977
*
NEW REGIONAL C~
In 17 years as head coach (school was closed two years for remodeling), Combs compiled a won-loss record of 328-121, and only three of his teams finished below .500. He led the Oilers to eight league championships and his teams advanced to the CIF playoffs 12 times. From 1969-70, Huntington Beach teams combined a 7912 record, including 44 consecutive league victories and three league crowns. "After 24 years of doing the same thing, there comes a time for a change," the 48-year old coach told the Los Angeles Times in Febtuary. "We are competing in 14 varsity sports now and I'd like to devote my time to developing the entire sports program at Huntington," he concluded. The Oilers' most successful season came in 1968, when they fell to Compton 64-52 in the CIF championship game. That team was composed of guards Rick Siebert and Greg Snyder, forwards Brian Ambrozich and Mike Contreras and center Roy Miller. Combs himself was a star of two championship Oiler teams, playing forward on the 1945-46 teams. He was an excellent outside shooter and the first of only two Huntington players to be named to the first team all-city two years in a row. Mike Contreras was the other. As John Weyler of the Times writes, "Combs is almost an institution at Huntington Beach High. He's ·been there longer than most of the buildings. He remembers that nine of ten guys on his 1968 team are college graduates today, and that's more important to him than what they did in 1968." California is so loaded in the spring, that after only one month of track and swimming competition, their best times are superior to most other states after they concluded a three-month season. No sooner had Pasadena won the CIF basketball title when Pasadena sprinter James Sanford ran a sizzling 46.7 quarter to win that event in the Southern Counties Invitational at - of all places- Huntington Beach. The time was the fastest in the nation this year, and the only Californians who have run faster are former state champions Ulis Williams of Compton (46.1 in 1961) and Larance Jones of Lemoore (46.6 in 1969). Sanford had an outstanding day, running a heat of the 220 in 21.4, winning the final in 21.9, and running great legs on both the 440 and mile relays. Junior Anthony Curran of Crespi cleared 15-10 to win the pole vault, best in California and second best in the nation at the time, behind a 16-0 vault by Gary Lankford of Taylor, Texas. Senior Glen Cunningham of Pasadena Blair had never been under 1:59.0 in the half-mile before, but won this race in a national seasonal best of 1:54.6. And David Thompson, a 6-4 senior from Santa Ynez, tossed the discus 190-3 in a dual meet against San Luis Obispo, the best-ever throw during regular season by a CIF-SS athlete, breaking the mark of 187-6 set last year by.Rich Johnson of Mayfair. And all of this in March. Before one month of competition was concluded, five sprinters had run 9. 7 or faster, two had broken 49.0 in the quarter, four were under I: 57.0 in the half, three had dipped below 4:20 for the mile, three had broken 9:27 for two-miles. The 440
37