City Section boys basketball has nowhere to go

It may be time to write a folks music about the demise of City Section basketball utilizing the music of Peter, Paul and Mary and the new title, “Where Have All the Players Gone?”

The expertise degree clearly has hit all-time low only a 12 months after Alijah Arenas was a McDonald’s All-American at Chatsworth High and Tajh Ariza led Westchester to the City Section Open Division title. Because their mother and father went to City Section colleges, Arenas and Ariza caught it out. Then Arenas graduated early to be a part of USC and Ariza left for St. John Bosco, then prep faculty.

Westchester is where Ed Azzam gained 15 City titles in 42 seasons until his retirement in 2021. Crenshaw is where Willie West gained 16 City titles and eight state titles. Taft is where Derrick Taylor gained 4 City titles and coached future NBA gamers Jordan Farmar, Larry Drew II and AJ Johnson. Fairfax is where Harvey Kitani coached for 35 years, gained 4 City titles and two state titles and earned most of his practically 1,000 victories. He was adopted by Steve Baik and Reggie Morris Jr., each of whom gained City championships before leaving.

None of the City colleges once thought-about among the best in Southern California are even close to resembling their glory days, and they aren’t alone. The City Section has misplaced most of its expertise, and it was really Hall of Fame expertise: Marques Johnson and John Williams at Crenshaw; Gail Goodrich at Sun Valley Poly; Willie Naulls at San Pedro; Dwayne Polee at Manual Arts; Gilbert Arenas at Grant; Trevor Ariza at Westchester; Chris Mills at Fairfax. There had been many years of success.

There’s no one individual to blame. You can’t even place the downfall solely on the Los Angeles Unified School District, whose high colleges compete in the City Section.

But LAUSD has performed nothing to reverse the development and didn’t help issues by opening so many new colleges in such speedy fashion that longtime legacy colleges misplaced their luster amid declining scholar enrollment. Things grew to become even more disruptive by the rise of constitution colleges and personal colleges taking away top athletes. Adding to that, the loss of veteran coaches annoyed by forms points and guidelines that drive packages to secure permits and pay to use their own gyms in the offseason helped additional the exodus.

Westchester is 2-8 this season and an instance of where City Section basketball stands. Two top gamers from last season — Gary Ferguson and Jordan Ballard — are now at St. Bernard. Westchester doesn’t even have a roster posted on MaxPreps. King/Drew gained its first City Open Division title in 2024 under coach Lloyd Webster. This season Webster despatched his senior son, Josahn, to Rolling Hills Prep to play for Kitani. King/Drew is 4-10.

Charter colleges Birmingham, Palisades and Granada Hills have separated themselves in just about all City Section sports activities including basketball. They have no enrollment boundaries as long as there’s a seat for a scholar. Palisades misplaced so many college students after the wildfire last 12 months that transfers have been big additions for its groups this faculty 12 months. Online programs are being provided to help college students enroll and compete in sports activities at constitution colleges.

The previous powers from the internal metropolis — Crenshaw, Dorsey, Jefferson, Locke and Fremont — skilled big modifications in demographics. Many coaches are walk-ons and not lecturers. The legacy colleges have to compete with constitution colleges View Park Prep, Triumph, Animo Watts, Animo Robinson, WISH Academy and USC-MAE. When younger gamers are found and developed, not often will they keep when one of the personal colleges or AAU coaches looking for expertise spots them in the offseason.

So what’s left? Not a lot.

Palisades, Washington Prep and Cleveland appear to be the three top groups this season. All three added transfers to help buck the downward development. And yet their data are 3-10, 8-8 and 7-6, respectively, against principally Southern Section groups.

Maybe this may be a fluke one-year plunge to the underside and the climb back up can start, aided by coaches who acknowledge their job is to educate classes in basketball, life and school preparation. Parents need a motive to ship their youngsters to a City Section faculty. It’s up to LAUSD and principals to help change the trajectory by discovering coaches with integrity, ardour and willingness to embrace the underdog function.

There are a lot in the system doing their best. It’s time to start listening to and answering their pleas for help.