Western League b BB: 'They don't give up'

By Ed Piper

The Kearny Komets, of all teams in the Western League, would seem to have the most reason to run for cover.

The Clairemont-area school, the alma mater of Hall of Fame shortstop Alan Trammell, is presently (Jan. 8) 4-12 overall, after losses in its first two games in league play.

But Coach Foad Ahwazi, who goes by Todd, seeks to have his players "play hard no matter what the score is."

"We have a senior, DeAndre Andrews, averaging 25 points a game," said Ahwazi, sitting in the coaches' office at Kearny High during the last period of the day, period four, light raindrops falling outside in a precursor of a one-inch storm forecast for the night and morning of Tues., Jan. 9.

"They (his team) plays loose. The last couple of weeks we've been hanging in there the best we can. We went through our struggles. We had an eight-game losing streak."

But Ahwazi, whose last name in Farsi means a person from the town of Ahwaz, in Iran, he says, said he is continuing to train his players to play their best, whatever the circumstances.

"We also have Brenton Bell, a senior. He's our point guard and ball-handler. He was a running back for the football team, the second leading rusher in the county.

"Aside from them, we're a young team. DeAndre hasn't been able to be on the court the last three years, so he has finally made it.

"If we need DeAndre to bring the ball up court, he can. He's broad-shouldered."

Ahwazi had a team practice scheduled from 3:30 to 5:30 later in the afternoon. Fourth period lets out at 3:30 at Kearny, in one of the latest dismissals in the area. He'll have to take the Komets into battle at St. Augustine Tues., Jan. 9, at 5 p.m. The Saints might be ripe for an upset right now, as they continue to experience the trials of a young team without older floor leadership.

"Mike (Haupt) is a good coach," said Ahwazi. "His son (Luke, a sophomore guard) is a good player, too."

The Kearny coach remembered La Jolla's Reed Farley. "Didn't they go to the Division 2 finals two years ago?" he asked, remembering correctly. The Vikings faced Country Day in the title game, and lost.

Western League b BB: 'We're young'

By Ed Piper

"We've lost two out of three. Who are we to take anybody lightly?" asked St. Augustine coach Mike Haupt rhetorically, coming off a non-league loss to Country Day Sat., Jan. 6, a six-point league loss to Mission Bay, and before that an upset of Bishop O'Dowd of Oakland, a Northern California power, in the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic.

"Hey, we're fighting. I love my guys. We're young. We're going to keep playing hard," the veteran coach said when contacted at school during class sessions Mon., Jan. 8. The Saints, led by a sophomore core that includes 6'6" Chibuzo Agbo, draw an easier opponent, Kearny, at Kearny High Tues., Jan. 9 in the second week of Western League action.

Kearny has absorbed sizeable losses at the hands of its Western League opponents so far: 73-54 at Henry, and 73-40 at Cathedral Catholic. The matchup with St. Augustine should provide a salve to soothe the hurting Saints, who have been up and down since defeating host Torrey Pines on Tipoff Night Dec. 26 prior to the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic.

"They're going to get better," Haupt said of his team, which includes his son, Luke, a 6'5" sophomore guard who played well versus the Falcons.

"I've watched the game tape of Saturday over and over," he said of the Country Day defeat. "We're up by five in the fourth quarter."

He went on to mention another close loss. So, in his view, St. Augustine is close. The team is not playing badly. The unit just has to go through the normal maturing process, because most of the key players are underclassmen.

Regarding how he treats a younger team as opposed to one populated with upperclassmen, Haupt said, "It's a fine line... Absolutely, they're a young team. You don't want to give them the idea it's okay to (play below their abilities). You don't want to bury them, either."

Told of a coach who motivated with fear back in the day, Haupt responded, "I think kids are a little different these days. I don't think fear goes very far."

LJ wrestling: Even more photos 1/4

By Ed Piper

Prep b BB: Separation by MB

Mission Bay's Boogie Ellis (right front)
at the pregame captains' meeting
before the Bucs' loss to Country Day
Dec. 26 on Tipoff Night at
Torrey Pines High. (Photo by Ed Piper)
 

By Ed Piper

Mission Bay, with a big win over Lincoln Jan. 5, has separated itself from the rest of the pack in Western League boys basketball following its earlier six-point win over St. Augustine.

The Buccaneers, with a new coach and new players last year following the long coaching career of Dennis Kane, known for his screaming on the sidelines, have matured into the cream of the Division 1 league.

The Saints would have been up there, but long-time coach Mike Haupt's crew is still adapting after losing CIF Player of the Year Taeshon Cherry to Foothills Christian two weeks before the start of practice.

St. Augustine, coming up on La Jolla's schedule Fri., Jan. 12, sports a brand new playing complex, three stories high, topped by outside basketball courts on its roof. I haven't seen the inside, but the mere shape of it from the outside, which I viewed at the end of last spring, was impressive enough.

With a zoning height limit for the surrounding neighborhood, I am told there was a maximum level to which the administration could erect the building. So, the solution was digging a deep hole, which the construction company did in the middle of campus, then assembling quite an impressive structure.

Haupt, last school year, laughed when I said, "You're losing your home court advantage" by leaving the tiny band box the Saints played in for decades. (It is so small, my wife got a case of the nerves during one Vikings-Saints game several years ago, and had to leave the unfriendly confines to get some fresh air and calm her nerves.)

Said Haupt: "No, the new building is going to give us even more of a home court advantage. There are (x) number of student seats behind the opposing basket, and (x) number of home spectator seats on the side." He had it all planned out, to further terrorize opposing teams with the vocal, screaming "Pit" of male students who raise heck and razz opposing players.

Back to Mission Bay: The four juniors who started as sophomores seem to be playing especially well. Ryan Meier, coach of Country Day, had their number in a decisive win on Tipoff Night prior to the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic. "We knew they didn't shoot well outside, so we defended them that way," said one of his team leaders the morning after the game at the team shoot-around. No one else since then has been able to slow Boogie Ellis and company down.

Country Day just beat the Saints Sat., Jan. 6, in a non-league matchup of highly-ranked teams. It seems St. Augustine, which seemed in a good place during the Torrey Pines tourney, is struggling right now. It looks like growing pains. They'll get better, though.



At this early moment in the seven-week Western League schedule, after the first week, the pick of the litter assembles like this:
1. Mission Bay - on top fairly decisively
2. St. Augustine - not playing up to Mission Bay's level
3. Cathedral Catholic - a somewhat unknown factor
4. Lincoln - The Hornets were defeated by Mission Bay by 23 points.
5. Patrick Henry - The Patriots lost to Cathedral by 20, beat La Jolla by 10.
6. La Jolla - losers of six of their last seven
7. Kearny - roundly beaten by Henry (by 19) and Cathedral (by 33)

LJ wrestling: More photos 1/4

By Ed Piper

LJ b soccer 1, Coronado 1

Captain Marco Furlanis lines up his shot
in heavy fog at Edwards Stadium
(visible on lens). (Photos by Ed Piper)

 
By Ed Piper

Marco Furlanis' rocket into the upper right corner of the goal on a free kick from the left side at about the 18-yard line of the football field was the equalizer, as La Jolla dueled visiting Coronado to a 1-1 draw in boys soccer Friday night, Jan. 5.

Furlanis' kick, coming in the fourth minute of the second half, was the Vikings' only score. Earlier, the Islanders had netted a goal in the 32nd minute of the first period.

Furlanis (hidden) heads up field with teammates
after a brief celebration of his goal, the lone
one on the night for the Vikings.

LJ b BB: Division 1 patter

Viking coach Paul Baranowski uses hydrogen
peroxide to clean the floor of blood, apparently
from Charlie Gal's pinkie, during
the first quarter. (Photo by Ed Piper)
 

By Ed Piper

"What are we doing playing in Division 1?" asked an observer incredulously after La Jolla's 65-55 loss to Patrick Henry at home Fri., Jan. 5.

The observer wasn't attached to the La Jolla High boys basketball program, rather the Henry basketball team.

The remark came at the end of a conversation which went on during the game, in which two of the Western League's non-star-studded teams faced off.

Whereas the Patriots now stand at 2-0 in the newly-Division 1 league (formerly Division 2 and, until three years ago, Division 3, before the creation of the Open Division), the Vikings have dug themselves into an early hole at 0-2.

Neither team has faced the big dogs yet, but they're coming: Henry, which beat lowly Kearny 73-54 Jan. 3, travels to Mission Bay Tues., Jan. 9, then Cathedral and home against St. Augustine the following week.

Meanwhile, on Tues., Jan. 9 La Jolla hosts Cathedral Catholic, which already defeated the Patriots by 20 (69-49) in the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic Dec. 30. In quick order come St. Augustine in its new home-court-advantage facility Fri., Jan. 12, and Mission Bay at home Tues., Jan. 16.

Mission Bay is merely the top-ranked team in San Diego County. The Bucs mangled Lincoln, which just defeated the Vikings this week, by a bad 51-28 margin Fri., Jan. 5. The Saints lost to Mission Bay Jan. 3 narrowly, 60-54. But they're ranked third, and feature a talented lineup of sophomores you don't see everyday.

To return to our initial theme, how did La Jolla, now 6-8 on the season, end up in Division 1? For one thing, leagues are realigned according to success, rather than school enrollment as was done traditionally, every two years. For another, there was a will on the Vikings' side to move up.

As Quinn Rawdin, a senior guard on the team said in a feature article recently, he and the team wanted to move up to higher competition. Playing in Division 1 is an honor.

The competition is tougher. The teams are more skilled. La Jolla has had disciplined, team-oriented squads ever since Kamal Assaf took the coaching reins a decade and a half ago, then present coach Paul Baranowski moved seamlessly into the position after assisting Kamal--but actually being treated as a co-coach in many ways by Assaf in view of Baranowski's now-near-three-decades of head coaching experience--for two years while his son, Jake Baranowski, played for the Vikings.

Scaling the mountain of facing Cathedral, when the Dons had seven-footer Brandon McCoy, or Lincoln, back when present Henry coach Jason Bryant led Norm Powell (now on the Toronto Raptors of the NBA) and Tyree and Tyrell Robinson, twins who played football at Oregon, to the state title, was a big thrill. (Tyree shot baskets at halftime of the Vikings' game at Lincoln Jan. 3.)

But getting plastered by 50 points by the Dons, for instance, two years ago coming off an inactive Winter Break was not exhilarating. It was downright unpleasant, not something you want to go through all the time. There was no thrill in defeat in that game.

Back to the present, had the Vikings managed to split their first two league games, beating either Lincoln, which is very beatable, or Henry, it would have made the present situation a little less dire. You don't want to go weeks without a win. Hopefully, La Jolla won't go through that.

When Reed Farley sustained a high ankle sprain near the end of the Vikings' win at Bishop's in a non-conference rivalry game two years ago--teammate Eddie Parker shoved him in celebratory fashion following his dramatic slam dunk to put La Jolla up by 5 or so--La Jolla went on a death march of six straight losses.

But, knowing the La Jolla program, Baranowski is cooking up a way to free up more of the Vikings' players talents right now to get them back closer in approximation to the flowing, relaxed team that won the Hilltop Invitational title to begin this season.