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SoCal High School & Prep Report

Small School Report: Liberty League's
Avalon High & Buckley School--(February 8, 1998)

The Liberty League in Southern Section features some academically challenging schools, some of whom have fine basketball traditions. The Liberty League features such schools as Avalon High, The Buckley School, Holy Martyrs, Oakwood Prep, Providence, Viewpoint Academy, Windward School, and LA Yeshiva High. They might not be taking on Dominguez or Crenshaw anytime soon, but give them a calculator or sliderule, and watch 'em go to work. Average SAT scores at most of these schools is about 1300. Some small schools in the LA area even get D-I basketball scholarships to major programs. Look at UCLA's Mitchell Butler (Oakwood), or Baron Davis (Crossroads). Or any number of other fine athletes who come out of these small Division V schools with fine educations, well prepared for college life.

Among the more athletically gifted programs in this small school league are Avalon, Yeshiva and Buckley. The Buckley School is a small private high school in Sherman Oaks, which a dozen years ago played in the Delphic League before it was reconstituted to include Campbell Hall, Crossroads, etc. Buckley still competes in Delphic in some sports. Prior to Delphic League, they played in the Prep League, when schools such as Flintridge Prep were powers. You may also recall that Oakwood was the alma mater of UCLA star Mitchell Butler. Oakwood is in a "rebuilding" season, and the team hasn't won a game in league. Buckley too is in a rebuilding year, having lost big man George Wrighster to Sylmar this season, but even so they are currently third in league standings, and feature future star players such as Colin Ward-Henninger. Look for more reports on them here at SoCalHoops and on the Liberty League in general and other small school leagues too.

And while we're on the subject of the Liberty League, we received a report from our correspondent in Avalon where there were two games played yesterday.

For those not familiar with the town of Avalon, it sits on the southeastern edge of the island of Catalina, which is 26 miles off the coast of Los Angeles. Catalina is technically in Los Angeles County, but it might as well be a thousand miles away. But for the fact that on a clear evening you can see the lights of LA from Avalon Harbor, you'd think you were in a Mexican or Mediterranean paradise. Ok, it's not paradise, but during the summer it can be very pleasant. Small town, lots of boating people, scuba diving, vacationers, lots of bars and restaurants and beach types roaming around. Avalon, in other words is not a place that would make you would think "basketball" first.

But Avalon High does have a team, and they're doing pretty well this year. Because of the great distances the team must travel to play it's games, Avalon is sort of unique in terms of scheduling: Teams who visit the island or who are visited by the Avalon team, play back-to-back games, usually over two days, but sometimes, like yesterday when the weather or other circumstances dictate it, they'll play the back-to-back games the same day. And SoCalHoops now has its own reporters on the island of Avalon, and we're pleased to present their report of yesterday's action between Avalon and Providence:

"Due to stormy weather that cancelled boats to the island on Friday, Avalon played a double header against Providence High School on Saturday. Avalon came out on fire with a 20-6 first quarter, and never lost the lead. Despite a second quarter rally by Providence, Avalon dominated with a final score of Avalon 77 Providence 45. High scores for Avalon: Weston Leonhardi-23, Carlos Hernandez-12, Mitch Marincovitch-10. All players for AHS scored. Jones for Providence had 13.

"In the second game Providence came back hungry and outplayed Avalon in the first half. Avalon had a good third quarter with both teams trading baskets in the fourth. At the end of regulation, the teams were tied at 59. Five Avalon free throws in overtime led to a 66-64 victory for Avalon. High scores for Avalon: Steve Tilly-22 and Weston Leonhardi-12. High scores for Providence: Jones and Kacsinta with 13 apiece.

"Avalon's record at this point is 14-7 overall and 9-3 in league. This puts Avalon in second place behind Yeshiva in the Liberty League. Avalon plays Buckley next Friday and Saturday at Buckley."

Ok, pretty basic stuff, and we're working on getting more information on the players, the coach, the team in general, and more. But for now this will have to suffice.

Avalon's games against Buckley should determine whether Buckley or Avalon make the playoffs. Buckley played Viewpoint on Friday night at Viewpoint, and lost 50-61, and is now 6-4 in league; Viewpoint is 7-10 overall and 2-8 in league, so they're pretty much out of it. Going into yesterday's Avalon games, Providence was 5-4, and now with the two losses, they are 5-6. Windward was 4-7 as of last Thursday from their Wednesday game, and we are uncertain whether they played Friday or Saturday, but it doesn't look like they did. We don't know the actual record, but we understand that Yeshiva may be undefeated in League. We don't know about Holy Martyrs at all, and will try to find out, but from the lack of any information on them, we're going to assume that they are near the bottom of the league. If they're not, we're sure someone out there will be yelling at us soon about this.

So for now, the standings in Liberty League are as follows:

1. Yeshiva ( unknown, but believed to be 12-0)
2. Avalon (9-3)
3. Buckley (6-4)
4. Windward (4-7)
5. Holy Martyrs??--assuming they've won one they're in fifth; if not they're tied for last
6. Oakwood (0-9)

Stay tuned. We'll have more to follow.