rebok inglewood

Our friend and correspondent Jason Day has been working with Larry Gray, who took some great pictures at the Reebok Classic. These are mostly of Inglewood and their opponents, and given the quality of the equipment that Larry was using, they are a lot sharper and clearer than anything we've been ab le to shoot with our little Sony Mavica digital camera. We hope you enjoy them.

Inglewood High's team was a pleasant surprise at this tournament. I hadn't seen them in competition yet this season
and truthfully didn't figure that they had improved much from last year when I felt they "underachieved". The few times I saw them last season, they struck me as a team that stood around to see what their star, (Bradley Jackson) was gonna do.

Jackson is gone (graduated) this year, and the rest of the crew are all contributing. They are a very talented bunch with a point guard (JR Brian Taylor) who can be brilliant at times, and two big men (SR Noel Felix, a human highlight film, and Osa "Skip" Esene) both of whom can put points on the board in bunches, as well as defend the paint. Senior guards, Sandy Fletcher and Lenny Brown (both of whom can sky AND shoot) and Senior forward, Marvin Isaacs, give this team some strength all over the floor.

Yeah, they got demolished by Oak Hill, but so did everybody else (including Mt. Zion, can you believe that???), but back down here in L.A. among the merely mortal teams, yours truly thinks Inglewood just might be one of the better ones. They took ninth in this Tourney, beating Mountain View (Mesa, AZ) 76-70. An impressive win over a quality team. We'll see. Here's some flicks for their fans.


Brian Taylor eyes the pass...then shows the pretty shooting form.		Brian Tayler with the jumper

Okay, Brian Taylor has the prettiest J. He also had 17 pts. in this one (7 of 11, one 3) 4 boards and 4 steals. Skip earned game MVP with 16 pts and 8 boards.


Fletcher apparently scares the snot outta #22...and Isaac gets hacked at the rack.		Lenny Brown gets ready to dunk

By the way, the team in white is St. Mary's High from Phoenix AZ. They had a 23-8 record last season and finished tied for first in their league. With just 650 students, I assume it was one of the smaller leagues, but this was a pretty gutty and well coached team. Inglewood beat em by ten 71-61.

Ok, who's got the prettier J...Noel Felix #44 or Lenny Brown #12... hint...Noel "boinked" his off the edge of the backboard.


Top right) That's Lenny Brown being fouled by St. Mary's Jason Fontenet (not a bad little guard)...he's a 5'10 sophomore who had 16 pts. and 5 boards in this one... he was 3 for 6 from the arc, he's got a twin brother who plays for the team too... but he didn't have the hops on this dunk attempt and had to hack Brown.		Sandy Fletcher D's up Gavranovic (upper left) then turns the corner on Stidham (lower left)


That's Skip Esene in the next shot with the slam, and there's #22 again in his "favorite" pose.

(Above): Uhhhh...'scuse me, you wanna tell homeboy here to stop touchin me, It's bad enough I gotta be out here in my 'draws', now he gotta be touchin me." Lenny Brown anoying James Fontenet, Jason's brother.

(Above left ) Gotta give props to the Sentinel cheerleaders, they kept the joint jumpin at every Inglewood game. Inglewood was the only team (that I saw) to bring their Cheerleading squad with them...nice touch...great group of young ladies.