LA Times Preseason Picks--Valley

The LA Times today issued their annual Pre-Season Rankings for High School Teams in the Valley Region. The list is compiled by Eric Sondheimer, and it's pretty right on from what we've observed. Here are the Boys' Teams in order, and with their 96-97 records.

Rank	Team	League	96-97
1	Simi Valley	CIF--Marmonte	23-4
2	Chaminade	CIF--Mission	20-8
3	Valencia	CIF--Foothill	15-10
4	Montclair Prep	Independent	20-7
5	Cleveland	City--West Valley	20-7
6	Newbury Park	CIF--Marmonte	19-9
7	San Fernando	City--North Valley	13-13
8	Notre Dame	CIF--Mission	15-13
9	Burbank	City--Foothill	16-12
10	Santa Clara	CIF--Frontier	22-5

The Times also released it's Pre-Season Rankings for Girls' teams, and we really don't want to overlook them either, so here it is:

Rank	Team	League	96-97
1	Crescenta Valley	CIF--Pacific	29-4
2	Buena	CIF--Channel	27-3
3	Harvard-Westlake	CIF--Mission	21-8
4	Ventura	CIF--Channel	18-6
5	Hart	CIF--Foothill	22-6
6	No. Hollywood	City--Mid-Valley	22-4
7	Moorpark	CIF--Frontier	26-4
8	Royal	CIF--Marmonte	15-9
9	Alemany	CIF--Mission	24-6
10	Channel Islands	CIF--Marmonte	19-8

We'll continue to do previews and reviews of all of these teams, including the girls' teams when time permits, and especially if BTExpress sends us the info he promised on the H-W team, particularly since the team is really loaded this year, with returning starters Corrie Roberts, Omelogo Udeze, Rolake Bamgbose, and Matt Bendick's favorite player, Brooke Porter (how did we know???--we have our spies).

We are also a bit surprised that Sondheimer (or the Times, since Sondheimer doesn't actually take credit for the pre-season "poll"---we wonder who he asked---) didn't mention Grant. We hear that they've got some great shooters this year, and could conceivably challenge NH in the Mid-Valley City Section.