Banning’s Boys Get Top Seeding in Soccer

Wilmington Banning is the top-seeded team, defending champion Reseda is No. 2, Woodland Hills El Camino Real No. 3 and Franklin is No. 4 in the 32-team boys’ soccer playoffs that begin with first-round games Friday.

In girls’ competition, which begins Tuesday, Chatsworth is the top-seeded team in the 16-team Championship bracket. The defending champion Chancellors have won nine of the last 11 titles. San Pedro is the second-seeded team, Woodland Hills El Camino Real is third and Van Nuys Birmingham is fourth.

Manual Arts is the top-seeded team in the 16-team Division tournament, for teams ranked Nos. 17-32.

Semifinal girls’ matches are March 2. Boys’ semifinals are March 3.

Championship matches in all three divisions will be played March 6 at East Los Angeles College.

*

Thirty-three teams in six leagues begin play in City golf competition this week.

Locke and Carson have added programs for this season, replacing Woodland Hills Taft and the Downtown Business Magnet, which dropped their programs.

The girls’ individual championships will be held May 10 at Hansen Dam.

The boys’ finals will be played May 17 at Griffith Park.

Granada Hills is the defending team champion.

*

Westchester’s football team, which advanced to the City semifinals before the team was removed from the playoffs for using an ineligible player, will be able to participate in this fall’s playoffs.

Westchester was initially ruled ineligible for the 1999 playoffs because the infraction pertained to the use of an ineligible player in a postseason game. But the rules committee granted an appeal because school personnel were unaware that the player in question was ineligible, City Commissioner Barbara Fiege said.

The Westchester program is on probation through the end of the 1999 football season.