Changes Wreak Havoc on All-Section Selection Process

Crenshaw High football Coach Robert Garrett had a lot of explaining to do to players and parents when the All-City Section team was released late last month.

The team, made up of the top players from the 49 schools that compete in football in the Los Angeles Unified School District, didn’t have a name from Crenshaw. The Cougars finished the season with an 8-3 record and were second in the rugged Southern Pacific Conference to San Pedro, the eventual Division 4-A champion.

Garrett’s team defeated several playoff-bound teams during the regular season, including Washington, Harbor City Narbonne and Dorsey. It also gave San Pedro one of its toughest games in a 16-6 loss.

Crenshaw has several players who excelled during the season and are being recruited, including receiver Lonnie Neal and fullback Antrell Harris. Neal had more than 700 yards in receptions and eight touchdowns and also returned punts and kickoffs. Harris is a bruising blocker and is also dangerous as a receiver out of the backfield.

San Pedro, which defeated Taft for the title, placed seven players on the All-City team. Taft had five, and Westchester, a semifinalist, had six. Dorsey, Narbonne and Washington each had at least one player on the team. Even San Fernando, which didn’t qualify for the 4-A or 3-A playoffs, had a player on the 4-A team.

“The parents of my players want to know why we didn’t get anybody on the team, and I don’t have any answers,� Garrett said. “I look over the team and am pretty shocked at what I’m seeing. We hold San Pedro to 16 points and they still get seven kids on the team. Something is wrong here.�

Something is definitely wrong. And it involves more than Crenshaw.

Many schools in the City and Southern sections received less-than-adequate representation at meetings that were held last month, after the season, to select the top players.

A change in format to select the players is one reason for the problems, and disorganization on the part of the Amateur Athletic Foundation, which sponsors the teams, is another.

For years, local sportswriter Braven “Bud� Dyer oversaw the selection process of the All-City and All-Southern Section teams. In 1985, he joined forces with the AAF, a nonprofit organization started with profits from the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The AAF provided meeting facilities, covered administrative costs and presented certificates and trophies to honored players. Wells Fargo bank also provided financial support.

Dyer invited sportswriters from around the Southland to help in the selection process. He also sent nomination ballots to all coaches and provided season records and playoff records for the 300 or so schools that compete in football.

In November, Dyer took a medical leave of absence from the AAF. Because of his health, he doesn’t expect to return and recommended that the AAF turn the selection process over to the sections.

Although the AAF and Wells Fargo continue to sponsor the teams, they decided to let the sections pick their own teams. The City Section decided to follow a similar format, with local sportswriters voting for the team, while the Southern Section turned the job over to the Southern California Interscholastic Football Coaches’ Assn.

Only five sportswriters turned out for the City Section’s meeting, held at a continuation school Dec. 18. No City Section administrator took part in the meeting and no ballots were sent to coaches.

“The meeting was a complete joke,� said one sportswriter who attended. “There was no voting process. If a name was brought up by someone, the player got on. If we didn’t have information on some teams, then those schools were left off.�

Barbara Fiege, City Section commissioner, said: “We were asked to select the teams and did what we were asked. We certainly aren’t interested in getting in the selection process because that shouldn’t be our role.�

The Southern Section selection process was more organized and there weren’t reports of gross oversights of players on the teams. Separate meetings were held for each of the section’s 12 divisions on Dec. 16. Each meeting consisted of a coordinator and a representative from each league in the division. Some local sportswriters were invited to attend and nominate players, but they didn’t have a vote.

Chuck Patterson, football coach at San Bernardino Pacific and president of the SCIFCA, said his group didn’t lobby to be involved in the selection process but came up with a plan when asked to do so.

“We welcomed the opportunity because we thought we could do a good job based on coaches knowing what’s going on on all of the teams,� Patterson said. “We’re closer to the players than the writers.�

That closeness is one reason coaches picking teams can be a problem. Two changes the SCIFCA made were to honor offensive and defensive players of the year in each division instead of one player of the year. For the All-Southern Section team, made up of the best players from all divisions, coaches put 32 players on the first team, then added a second team for the first time with 33 more. The exclusive team previously had been reserved for the premier 22 offensive and defensive players, plus kicker and punter, in the section.

Patrick Escobar, vice president for grants and programs for the AAF, conceded there were problems with the selection process.

“We obviously have things to look over for next year, and we may decide to go back to the way we used to do it,� Escobar said. “We tried, and it didn’t work.�