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SoCalHoops Fall League Report

ARC Fall League Schedules
And A Report Or Two--(Oct. 4, 1998)

ARC (American Roundball Corp.) runs one of the better fall leagues around.  We finally got the schedules for the full season, which concludes with a playoff series on Saturday and Sunday, October 31 and November 1.  We'll try to provide details on most of the teams during the fall session.   In order to understand who's playing, you need to understand that most of these teams are really single high school varsity teams, wearing different jerseys and without their regular coaches.  "The Park" is the Moorpark High School team; "Sherman Oaks" is Notre Dame High; the "Blue Team" is Milken; "S.O. Griffins" is Buckley; "Saracens" is Harvard-Westlake (we seem to recall that before the merger of Harvard with the Westlake school, that one of these two schools was called the "Saracens"; H-W's team that's playing down at 4-D is called the "Wolverines" which is the current school mascot name); "CV" is Conejo Valley, but which schools is unclear; "Team Havoc" is a bunch of guys from Chaminade and Crespi;  "TO"  is probably Thousand Oaks; "The Bank" is Burbank High; the "Monsters" is generally the same "Monsters of the Midway" team that played in the Long Beach Fall Hoops Classic; "NH" is North Hollywood; "Skywalkers" is the same team that played in the Pump Fall Shootout; the "ARC Razorbacks" is pretty much the same ARC team that played at the Slam-N-Jam NIT this summer, and we have no real idea who  these other teams are: "FSE" (Future Stars Elite??? see the Pump Fall Shootout rosters?)  the "Hoopshooters" or the  "Eagles" (Chaminade? Crespi? Rock 'n roll  band?).   Where we have names of players, we'll feature them in our future reports.

The league features games with 20 minute halves, with running clock, except during the last two minutes when it goes to stop-clock. Otherwise the rules are the same as in high school (except that here some of the refs seem to have swallowed their whistles and have forgotten how to call a foul).   Substitutions are mandatory every 8 minutes, and the last 8 minutes is free subs.   Used to be that man-to-man defense was required, but this year, ARC (aka Rich Goldberg) has finally decided to allow zone defense, since that's what a lot of high schools use anyway, cheesy though it may be at times.  Yeah, we like man to man. . . makes for a better game and better matchups.

The games are played either at Poly High in Sun Valley (just off the 170 at Roscoe, go east for a block and then turn left at Whitsett.  Make a right and turn into the gym parking lot), North Hollywood High (from LA take the 101 Hollywood Fwy, to the 170 and get off at Magnolia, go west just past Tujunga and you'll see the school; the gym entrance is on the right; from Pasadena take the 134 to the 101 and then to the 170 North, and exit at Magnolia; from West LA or the West Valley, take the 101 east and get off at Laurel Canyon, go north to Magnolia, turn right and go to the next stoplight and turn left into the gym parking lot) or at Oak Park High in Agoura (you're on your own. . . check the maps at Infoseek or somewhere else. . . actually take the 101 west and get off in Agoura).

So the code for Location is: P= Poly; N= North Hollywood, O= Oak Park,  and CM= Pierce College Men's Gym.

Rich Goldberg finally got the schedule together, and here is the complete deal, through November 1.  We've also got some brief game reports which follow:

Sunday, Sept. 27, 1998 Time Location
Team Havoc v. The Park 9:00a.m. P
S.O. Griffins v. Saracens 10:00 a.m. P
FSE v. Sherman Oaks 11:00 a.m. P
Blue Team v. CV 12:00 p.m. O
ARC Razorbacks v. Hoopshooters 1:00 p.m. P
Skywalkers v. Eagles 3:00 p.m. P
TO v. The Bank 7:00 p.m. P
NH v. Monsters 8:00 p.m. N
     
Sunday, October 4, 1998 Time Location
Blue Team v. SO Griffins 10:00 a.m. N
Team Havoc v. The Bank 11:00 a.m. N
Saracens v. Eagles 12:00 p.m. P
ARC Razorbacks v. The Bank 12:00 p.m. N
Hoopshooters v. The Park 2:00 p.m. P
Sherman Oaks v. TO 8:00 p.m. CM
CV v. NH 8:00 p.m. N
Monsters v. Skywalkers 8:00 p.m. P
     
Sunday October 11, 1998 Time Location
Blue Team v. Saracens 11:00 a.m. P
SO Griffins v. Eagles 12:00 p.m. P
The Park v. Sherman Oaks 1:00 p.m. P
CV v. Pasadena 3:00 p.m. P
ARC Razorbacks v. Monsters 4:00 p.m. P
TO v. Hoopshooters 5:00 p.m. P
Skywalkers v. Team Havoc 6:00 p.m. P
NH v. The Bank 8:00 p.m. N
     
Sunday October 18, 1998 Time Location
The Bank v. Saracens 9:00 a.m. N
SO Griffins v. The Park 11:00 a.m. P
Team Havoc v. Blue Team 12:00 p.m. P
CV v. Hoopshooters 1:00 p.m. P
Eagles v. Sherman Oaks 6:00 p.m. CM
ARC Razorbacks v. Skywlakers 7:00 p.m. P
Pasadena v. NH 8:00 p.m. N
TO v. Monsters 8:00 p.m. CM
     
Sunday October 25, 1998 Time Location
SO Griffins v. CV 10:00 a.m. P
Saracens v. TO 10:00 a.m. N
Shermand Oaks v. Blue Team 1:00 p.m. P
Pasadena v. The Bank 4:00 p.m. O
ARC Razorbacks v. Team Havoc 4:00 p.m. P
The Bank v. The Park 6:00 p.m. O
Skywalkers v. Sherman Oaks 7:00 p.m. N
Monsters v. Pasadena 7:00 p.m. P
NH v. Hoopshooters 8:00 p.m. N
     
Saturday, October 31    
Playoffs    
     
Sunday, November 1    
Playoffs (Championship 6:00 p.m. N

And if you've made it this far down the page, then we know you're interested enough to want to read about some of the action.  We could tell you all the gory details of the Griffins v. Blue Team game which took place this morning at 10:00 a.m., but we won't.  Suffice it to say, the Griffins better learn how to play in the morning.   After leading 19-7, the Griffins did an el-foldo, and ended up losing by 5. . . again.

And Ruben Sanchez, who also writes some reports for "NetScout," sent us a report on the Team Havoc v. The Bank game.  Here's what he had to say:

"Team Havoc Robs The Bank"

Team Havoc consists of mostly guys from Crespi and Chaminade, a little bit of both.  "The Bank" is mostly the Burbank High team, featuring Eric Rowher (6'-9" Sr. C) who was formerly looking at USC, and is now concentrating on schools like Navy and some Big West and WCC schools.  There are some new names appearing for both teams, as you'll see.

This was mostly a defensive and very physical game.   Mike Grimes of  Team Havoc was elbowed so hard at one point in the first half, that the game was stopped, just long enough to allow Mike's upper lip to be disloged from his braces, and to allow adjustment of a tooth that was slightly loosened in the collision -- but Mike continued to play - - he had to, since Team Havoc only had 5 players show up for this morning's game.  This was not a high scoring contest, and when we say it was a defensive, physical and at times ugly, contest, we mean it.  Havoc won, 30-28.   No, it wasn't a football game.  That's the correct score, 30-28.

Both teams played dogged defense, resulting in zero points scored for the first six minutes of play. The first points came only after a foul, with free throws made by Aaron Tunney (6'-0" Jr. PF) from Crespi. Tunney shot 75% from the line and, together with Matt Biernat (6'-4" Jr. PF) from Crespi,  led Havoc in rebounds ( 7 apiece).  Following the scoring drought, The Bank finally hit a couple of honest to goodness field goals.  Did we mention that it was a low scoring game: At the half, the score was 15 (The Bank) to 11 (Team Havoc).

The Bank was led by Eric Rohwer (6'-9" Sr. C/PF) from Burbank,   presenting a formidable obstacle to any scoring attempt, and in large part, one reason the score was so low, was Eric's great defense.   He only had 2 blocked shots, but then Havoc wasn't taking a lot of shots anyway.  Did we mention this was a low scoring game?  This game wasn't only about Rowher's defense; the problem for The Bank was that no one could feed the post, and Eric only managed six shots the entire game.   His guards just couldn't seem to get the ball inside to him; either they forgot how to make an entry pass, or the defense of Team Havoc was too overwhelming.  In any event, rather than feed the big man, The Bank tried the only other solution that seemed available: Shoot from the perimeter.  Which worked the last half of the first period, as Damian Jordan (6'-3" Jr. SG/SF), Pablo Gonzales (6'-0" Jr. SG) and Fadi Khalil (5'-11" Sr. SG) combined for 10 of the 15 points scored in the first half.

But that only worked for so long, and both teams came out for the second half with new found intensity -- probably the result of some heavy duty butt chewing from the coaches (who were not the teams' high school coaches, but a couple of fathers, who were probably pretty upset at spending an hour of their time watching this game).  But it was Havoc which came back with the better focus in the second half, and  Art D'Egidio (6'-1" Jr. SF) from Chaminade started taking it to the hole, and  Ruben Sanchez (5'-10" So. PG) from Chaminade and D'Egidio each scored 6 points; Sanchez was also impressive in the assist department, leading the team with 5, and he managed two steals and one blocked shot.  Most of Sanchez' assists were to Mike Grimes (6'-5" Jr. PF/C) from Crespi, who led Team Havoc's scoring with 10.

This wasn't the type of game that people pay to watch, since we don't know many people who really enjoy low-scoring defensive battles, but then again, if you're into arms & elbows colliding, teeth flying and bodies slamming, this was the game for you.


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