wss jam announcment

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SoCalHoops High School News

WSS Scholastic Hoops Jam Set
For This Saturday Night--(April 28, 1999)

We just got the full rosters and the official press release for the inaugural Warehouse Shoe Sale Scholastic Hoops Jam basketball benefit which will be held on Saturday, May 1st at Los Angeles Southwest College.

According to the press release, eighty-four athletes, girls and boys, will participate. Teams will be made up of CIF LA City Section players and CIF Southern Section players, and the two sections will compete against each other. There will be three games, a boys' underclassmen game, a girls' game, and a senior boys' game. The underclassmen will tip-off at 6:00 p.m., the girls will go at 7:00 p.m. (isn't that a bit short for a stop-clock game?), and the senior boys' will tip off at 8:30 p.m.

The press release also notes that the student athletes were selected because they have managed to balance their outstanding athletic prowess with their academic achievement. LA City Section Commissioner Barbara Fiege is quoted in the press release as saying, "This event, which will feature some of the most academically and p[hysically talented basketball players in the state, is to my knowledge, the first of its kind in the Los Angeles area. We are most proud of the fact that the student athletes who will be competing in the three contests have been selected forf their academic as well as their athletic prowess."

Retiring CIF Southern Section Commisioner Dean Crowley was equally enthusiastic, especially the requirement that each participant in the games must write a 250 word essay on their hero or role model and the fact that the players also will be participating in a bus tour of regional boys' and girls' clubs to share their experiences with younger players, such that the participants will also understand that they too are role models. Dean Crowley said, " I'm sure this will be an event that the students and their parents will remember for a long time and since I am retiring, it is one that has left a lasting impression of the dedication that Warehouse Shoe Sale has to the young people of our future."

The senior boys' teams will be coached by Baron Davis of UCLA, a Santa Monica Crossroads grad, and probably soon to be of the NBA, who will coach the Southern Section, and his fellow UCLA teammate, Billy Knight, a Westchester High grad who will coach the City Section team.

The rosters for the teams are posted separately, but there will be some great matchups in the senior game, including the great point guard matchup between Marlon Parmer (6'-3" Sr. PG) from Verbum Dei for the Southern Section and James Wright of Manual Arts of the City Section.

Tickets will be available at the door. We have no idea how much they will be (the press release doesn't say) but they probably won't be too expensive (we're guessing between $5 and $10), and for three games, that's cheap. If you need further information on the games, or want to know about the banquet tomorrow night (Thursday, April 29) at 6:00 p.m. at the Torrance Holiday Inn, call Kenneth Miller at (310) 715-9300.