east valley league predictions

The Valley Pac-8 Conference actually consists of two separate leagues, the "4A" East Valley League and the "3A" Mid Valley League. The designations 4A and 3A really have very little meaning except in a historical context, and they will be absolutely meaningless for the playoffs this year. And so will league titles and championships too. Well, they will be to the seeding committee which will determine the top 16 teams in the City for purposes of constructing the City Section "Championship" bracket and the "Division" title bracket. The former is intended to have the top 16 teams in the City, while the latter will have the next 16 teams (17-32). Only the City bracket will compete for the right to send the top two teams to the State Championship tournament.

Nevertheless, league titles are still important to some people, (and they will probably count for something on the seeding committee as well), so we've decided to get out our crystal ball (at least before the Daily News' Vincent Bonsignore or the Times' Eric Sondheimer get theirs out) and make some educated guesses at where we think the various schools will finish in the two leagues in the Valley Pac-8 Conference races for City Section.

East Valley League: No. 1 Grant & Sylmar (tie), No. 3 Canoga Park, No. 4 North Hollywood

Like last year, we think there will be co-champions of the league, but this time, North Hollywood won't be one of them. Both Grant and Sylmar return almost everyone, Grant from a good team in 4A, and Sylmar from a team that tood the City Championship in 3A.

No. 1 (Tie) Grant: Coach Howard Levine returns most of the team, including Arizona signee Gilbert Arenas (6'-4" Sr. SG), who personally scored 63 points in a losing effort last year against Crenshaw, who many said at the time was one of the best teams in the City (as it happened they were the third best. Krishna Evans (6'-4" So. F), Justin Buttikofer (6'-1" Jr. G), Hans Hoehn (6'-6" Jr. C/PF), Daniel Tarr (5'-11" Sr. SG), Rashawd Winston (5'-11" Sr. PG), and Ray Lipscomb (5'-8" Jr. G) all return from last year's varsity. Ryan Logan (5'-7" Jr. PG), Shrone Hakman (6'-4" Sr. SF/C), and Brand Edison (6'-2" Jr. F) are up from JV. This is a good shooting team, that only lacks a really big man, but so do the other teams in the league, with the exception of Sylmar's Joey Youmans. Still, we think Grant will win the league.

No. 1 (Tie) Sylmar: Coach Bort Escoto almost ended up with Arenas on his team, and had Gilbert transferred, there's no double Sylmar would be the No. 1 team in the league, the Valley, and possibly might contend for a City Championship, even under the new "City" and "Division" title rules for playoffs. The team returns almost everyone from the City 3A Championship team, including Jerry Calzada (6'-2" Sr. SG), Jeremiah Turner (6'-7" Sr. SF/PF) who attended ABCD Camp this summer, talented but underrated big man Joey Youmans (6'-8" Sr. C/F), Buckley transfer George Wrighster (6'-4" Sr. SG/PF), quick handled Brandon Jacobs (5'-10" Sr. PG), T.K. Reid (6'-0" Sr. PG), Chris Slade (6'-0" So. SG), Dallas Townsend (6'-4" Sr. C/F), George O'Garra (6'-6" So. C), Damien Derrico (6'-4" Jr. SG/SF), and John Valdez (6'-1" So. SG). The team is strong, and might be able to beat Grant twice. Either way, both of these teams will make it to the round of 16 to compete for the City title in February.

No. 3. Canoga Park: Coach Ralph Turner returns several players from the varsity last year, including Archie Ferguson (6'-0" Jr. PG/SG/SF), Romero Mendoza (6'-0" Jr. PG) Charles Harper (6'-3" Jr. SG/SF)--brother of Carloes Harper--, Mike Bell (6'-6" Jr. SF/PF), and Jammie Harris (6'-5" Jr. G/F), who was given the job of defending DeShawn Stevenson (6'-5" Jr. SG/SF) from Fresno Washington Union (EBO) at the Best of Summer Tournament, and Jammie did a great job, one of the few guys who could hang with DeShawn. And they've also picked up talented transfer Johnathon Townsend from Cleveland. Turner also should have returners Andre Freeman (5'-11" So. PG/SG), Brandon Lasley (6'-3" Fr. SG/F/PF), Archie Ferguson (6'-0" Jr. PG/SG/SF), and Edwin Garcia (5'-9" So.F 200 lbs.) back this year. This team also might qualify for one of the top 16 spots, but more than likely it will be a Division Championship bracket team.

No. 4: North Hollywood: Coach Rob Bloom is going to have an interesting time of it this year, with only two players returning from last year's varsity, Rahnell Johnson (5'-8" Jr. PG), and Eric Roller (6'-4" So. F/C). Gone are Keron Wilkerson, Dejon Lee, Chinnua Wright, Edward Baisden, and Jonathan Hicks. In their place are a group of new players who, while obviously well-coached, will be very hard-pressed to run with the other teams in the league.

And here's who we would pick as preseason All-League Players. These are all pretty obvious, and we

East Valley All-League Preseason Players
Grant (League MVP) Gilbert Arenas Krishna Evans	Sylmar Joey Youmans Jeremiah Turner Brandon Jacobs George Wrighster	Canoga Park Jammie Harris Mike Bell Charles Harper	North Hollywood Rahnell Johnson