war on the floor

Last week we posted the schedules and list of pools for the 1999 version of the War on the Floor tournament. Well, there have been a couple of changes and several additions to the tournament including a whole new pool, including LA Poly, El Camino Real, Washington Prep and Buckley, making it now a 28 team tournament. The first three days of the tournament will be pool play which will get started Tuesday, June 29 and runs through Thursday July 1. The tournament will then kick into single-elimination mode on July 2 and the finals will take place on July 3 (although we don't have a schedule for that . . . yet).

All of the pool play games (with the exception of a few games which will be played at Canoga Park HS) will be played at Pierce College, a JC located just off Winnetka Avenue in West Hills. Take the Ventura Freeway west, and get off at Winnetka and turn left just before Victory; continue west to the parking lot. You'll see the gym just to the north and west of the tennis courts. The games will be in the two gyms, the "North" gym and the "South" gym

With the addition of Pool G, the schedule has been tweaked a little bit, and generally speaking, several games have been added at the Games start at 10:00 a.m. the first day, but are staggered throughout the day, presumably to accomodate summer school attendance or just to allow for vacation and travel, and will continue with the last games getting started at 9:00 p.m. Games with an * will be played at Canoga Park HS, all other games are at Pierce College. Here's the schedule for Tuesday June 29, Wednesday June 30, and Thursday July 1:

Tuesday June 29 South Gym		Tuesday June 29 North Gym
12:30 p.m.	Harvard-Westlake v. Campbell Hall	10:00 a.m.*	Taft v. Hart
2:50 p.m.	Dorsey v. Notre Dame	11:10 a.m. *	Santa Monica v. Reseda
5:10 p.m.	Cleveland v. Hollywood	1:30 p.m.	Muir v. Granada Hills
6:30 p.m.	Canoga Park v. Alemany	2:40 p.m.	Marshall Fundamental v. Canyon
8:35 p.m.	Crespi v. Saugus	4:20 p.m.	Sylmar v. Westlake
9:35 p.m.	Washington v. Buckley	7:40 p.m.	Inglewood v. Daniel Murphy
		8:50 p.m.	Chatsworth v. Montclair Prep
		9:35 p.m.	LA Poly v. El Camino Real
Wednesday June 30 South Gym		Wednesday, June 30 North Gym
9:45 a.m.	Canyon v. Sylmar	10:55 a.m.	Notre Dame v. Cleveland
12:05 p.m.	Alemany v. Inglewood	12:05 p.m.	Reseda v. Taft
1:15 p.m.	Daniel Murphy v. Canoga Park	1:15 p.m.	Hart v. Santa Monica
2:25 p.m.	Campbell Hall v. Muir	3:35 p.m.	Granada Hills v. Harvard-Westlake
8:30 p.m.	Saugus v. Chatsworth	4:45 p.m.	Westlake v. Marshall Fundamental
9:35 p.m.	LA Poly v. Buckley	6:15 p.m.	Hollywood v. Dorsey
		7:25 p.m.	Montclair Prep v. Crespi
		9:35 p.m.	Washington v. El Camino
Thursday, July 1 South Gym		Thursday, July 1 North Gym
9:45 a.m.	Santa Monica v. Taft	9:45 a.m.	Hart v. Reseda
10:55 a.m.	Inglewood v. Canoga Park	10:55 a.m.	Cleveland v. Dorsey
12:05 p.m.	Marshall Fundamental v. Sylmar	1:15 p.m.	Alemany v. Daniel Murphy
2:25 p.m.	Campbell Hall v. Granada Hills	3:35 p.m.	Muir v. Harvard-Westlake
4:45 p.m.	Westlake v. Canyon	6:15 p.m.	Notre Dame v. Hollywood
7:25 p.m.	Crespi v. Chatsworth	8:30 p.m.	Montclair Prep v. Saugus
9:35 p.m.	Washington v. LA Poly	9:35 p.m.	El Camino Real v. Buckley

This should be a fun tournament and you'll get the opportunity to see most of the better players from the San Fernando Valley as well as from some of the surrounding region. The Los Angeles Times did a feature story on the tournament (or at least on Chatsworth and their play in the Ventura Coaches Association tournament) and in the article there was a reference to a girls' war on the floor tournament as well. We didn't get any schedule for a girls' tournament, but we'd guess that the games will be played in the North gym between the end of the 3:35 p.m. game (which should be over around 4:45, and the start of the 6:15 p.m. games. There are some other gaps in scheduling where a game or two might be squeezed in, but by and large, we'd be surprised if the girls tournament was nearly as large.

As for the boys' tournament on paper at least Inglewood, Santa Monica, and Chatsworth are probably the strongest teams in the tournament (but the latter might not be as strong without Adam Drell (6'-5" Sr. PF) who recently had minor back surgery and is still recovering). This is a pretty evenly matched field, and virtually any team might make a good run for the title this year.

Lastly, it's also worth noting that this tournament takes place during the same time frame as the Best in the West Tournament No. 2 which will run from June 28 (today) through July 2 at Artesia High, so you'll probably have to make a choice between the Valley and the City given the driving distances involved. We'll try to get to both and have some reports on most of the teams involved.

Pool A	Pool B	Pool C	Pool D	Pool E	Pool F	Pool G
Inglewood Canoga Park Alemany Daniel Murphy	Crespi Chatsworth Montclair Prep Saugus	Santa Monica Taft Hart Reseda	Cleveland Dorsey Notre Dame Hollywood	Marshall Fund. Sylmar Westlake Canyon (CC)	Muir Harvard-Westlake Campbell Hall Granada Hills	LA Washington LA Poly El Camino Real Buckley