6TH-GRADE HOOPSTERS BUILD REPUTATION\Foes find beating Gnats tall order.Byline: Bryan Winchell Special to the Daily News When facing the Newbury Park sixth-grade girls traveling basketball team, no lead is safe. Just ask Yorba Linda Yorba Linda (yôr`bə lĭn`də), city (1990 pop. 52,422), Orange co., S Calif., in a region of citrus fruit; inc. 1967. The city has grown tremendously along with the southern California area; its population increased fivefold between . Newbury Park, which is currently ranked No. 5 in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, in its age group, met Yorba Linda in the prestigious Southern California Women's Basketball Women's basketball is one of the few games which developed in tandem with men's. It became popular, spreading from the east coast of the United States to the west coast, in large part via women's colleges. Martin Luther King Jr. Tournament at Westminster High School Westminster High School may refer to:
Newbury Park, called the Gnats by coach Rich Bradley for its pressuring defense, fell behind by 12 points - a monstrous lead at that level - with just under half of the third quarter remaining. But the Gnats came storming back to within four at the end of the third quarter and tied the game with 3:20 left. The news spread around the Westminster gymnasium and, as the two teams changed leads nine times in the last two minutes, a large crowd gathered on the baselines to see how the game would end. Unfortunately for Newbury Park, it ended with a Yorba Linda basket with four seconds left to win the game by one point. Even though the loss was a tough one, Bradley and assistant coach Jim Goddard felt it was a positive step for the team. "Jim summed it up best when he said, 'going hard and giving everything you've got, that's just the spirit of sports,' " Bradley said. "I backed him up. I felt we accomplished more in that game than in half the wins we've had." After that game, the Gnats won five straight before losing by seven points to Pacific Palisades Palisades, cliffs along the west bank of the Hudson River, NE N.J. and SE N.Y., extending from N of Jersey City, N.J., to the vicinity of Piermont, N.Y., with a general altitude of from 350 ft to 550 ft (107–168 m). , the No. 2 ranked team, in the championship game of the Santa Barbara Santa Barbara (săn'tə bär`brə, –bərə), city (1990 pop. 85,571), seat of Santa Barbara co., S Calif., on the Pacific Ocean; inc. 1850. Tides Winter Classic. Judging by the emotional reaction of the Palisades team to the win, Bradley said his team is starting to earn some respect. "I've seen them in lot of different tournaments and when they've won, they haven't celebrated," Bradley said. "(But after beating us), that team was jumping up and down like they'd just won the biggest game of their lives." Because Newbury Park (12-4, 3-0) is getting some recognition, Bradley is trying to schedule some of the top teams in the area to go along with the team's seven remaining games in the Ventura County Youth Basketball Conference. Among those teams are San Fernando San Fernando, city, Argentina San Fernando (săn fərnăn`dō), city (1991 pop. 144,761), Buenos Aires prov., E Argentina. It is a district administrative center in the Greater Buenos Aires area. , Santa Barbara and Monterey Park Monterey Park, city (1990 pop. 60,738), Los Angeles co., S Calif., a growing residential suburb of Los Angeles; inc. 1916. It is a wholesale, retail, and financial services center. , the No. 1 ranked team. For the Gnats, winning usually results from their tenacious man-to-man and press defenses. The defense tries to cause turnovers, which then allow Newbury Park to run a fast break and score easy points. "We spend time carefully calculating our fast-break offense," said Bradley, in his seventh year as a youth coach. "It's all based on starting it with our defense. Right now, we're allowing the fewest points per game in league (play)." For Bradley, one of the biggest obstacles to overcome in coaching the team is his own health. The coach has been diagnosed with Epstein-Barr syndrome, which is draining him of his usually endless reservoir of energy. Fortunately, Bradley has Goddard, who has kept the team's practices going while Bradley has been unable to attend. Bradley spent a few days in the hospital around Christmas but wasn't about to miss one of his team's bigger exhibitions: two performances at the halftimes of the Atlantic Coast Conference/Pacific-10 Conference Challenge at Pauley Pavilion Edwin W. Pauley Pavilion, informally and commonly known as Pauley Pavilion, is an indoor arena located on the campus of UCLA in Los Angeles, California. It is home to the UCLA Bruins men's and women's basketball teams. The men's and women's volleyball teams also play here. . Not only did the team get to play in front of a collegiate audience, they met U.S. National team member Lisa Leslie and UCLA UCLA University of California at Los Angeles UCLA University Center for Learning Assistance (Illinois State University) UCLA University of Carrollton, TX and Lower Addison, TX men's player J.R. Henderson. "The big thing about it is that the time away from the court is what builds camaraderie on the court," Bradley said. And for the Gnats, that only means more big tournaments, comebacks and recognition. CAPTION(S): PHOTO Photo The girls team from Newbury Park has achieved its 12-4 record with a defense that forces turnovers. Jeremy Greene/Special to the Daily News |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion