At Harvard-Westlake, classes and sports coexist\A LOT TO BE PROUD OF.

Byline: Eric Sondheimer Daily News Deputy Sports Editor 

Take a walk through Harvard-Westlake High School's 26-acre campus in the hills overlooking Studio City and you won't believe it isn't filled with college students.

There's a new $13 million science building crammed with computer labs. There's a video lab for students to create their own films. There are computer terminals for digital photo imaging and a graphics lab. There are ceramics studios, lecture halls, two synthesizers to use with recording music demo tapes, a dance studio, a jazz band, extensive drama productions and advanced studies for architecture, painting, drawing, sculpture and animation.

"There are tons of things to choose from," Harvard-Westlake junior Ryan Smiley said.

The average Scholastic Assessment Test for the 270-member senior class of 1995 was 1,263. Fourteen graduates from last spring enrolled at Yale.

Yearly tuition at Harvard-Westlake is $12,000. There are some 1,200 applicants for 250 openings at the middle school for grades 7-9 located in West Los Angeles and the upper school for grades 10-12 in Studio City.

Under the direction of headmaster Thomas Hudnut, Harvard-Westlake has encouraged its students to develop interests besides academics. Most notably, the athletic program has become a powerhouse in the San Fernando Valley.

Its girls' volleyball team won a State championship last fall and the boys' basketball team plays for a State championship Saturday in Sacramento. The water polo team has been the area's best for years. The tennis and soccer teams routinely win league titles. The football team handed Notre Dame its only defeat two years ago.

As head coach for the U.S. Olympic water polo team, Rich Corso is respected as one of the world's top teachers for his sport. Any college program would love to hire him. But Corso won't leave his job coaching at Harvard-Westlake.

"I had the opportunity to coach at Yale, Stanford and UCLA, and Harvard-Westlake is the same kind of environment - academics are very important," he said. "It's the No. 1 priority, but he (Hudnut) believes in excellence, whether it be in the classroom, the arts, the pool, the playing field or the gym. Without lowering your academic standards, you can still have great sports teams and great student athletes."

Rico Cabrera, a junior forward on the basketball team, said going to Harvard-Westlake is "almost like already being in college." The options available to study are staggering. From seventh to 10th grade, he took photography. He also has tried drawing, sculpture and soon video.

With an upper school enrollment of 810, Harvard-Westlake is small enough to have class sizes of fewer than 20 but large enough to put together sports teams capable of competing with the best public and private schools in the area. The merger with Westlake School for Girls in 1991 helped increase the school's talent pool.

"We want kids who contribute in various ways to the vitality of the school," Hudnut said. "We're competing in State championships not just in volleyball and basketball but mock trial. We're small enough to offer the academic programs of a small private academy but big enough to feature the extracurricular programs of a major public school. That's a niche that nobody else occupies."

Unlike other schools, where each semester coaches worry about players who might become academically ineligible, Harvard-Westlake coaches rarely face such dilemmas.

"I suppose it's a big deal at other schools, but in all the years I coached football (19 years), I never had a problem," athletic director Gary Thran said.

Not until the winter of 1993 did the school truly begin to gain city-wide attention for its athletic excellence. Harvard-Westlake had won its share of soccer, tennis, volleyball and water polo titles, but the arrival of twins Jason and Jarron Collins made Harvard-Westlake No. 1 for the first time in a major sport - basketball.

"What happened when the twins came, all of a sudden you had two kids who were superstars in a major sport and brought attention to the entire school," said former Harvard-Westlake basketball player Scott Garson. "Before, you never saw a game where the gym was packed like it is now. The interest was strictly within the school. The year before they arrived, we went to the CIF quarterfinals. Nobody knew the heck who we were. All of a sudden, we were becoming a powerhouse."

Basketball coach Greg Hilliard, in his 11th season, marvels at the impact the twins have had on the school. This week, ABC's World News Tonight is doing a story on the twins.

"The biggest adjustment has been the publicity and attention they've brought to the team and school," he said. "I think there were people who didn't know what we were about. It will be starkly different (when the twins leave). They've given us something special - recognition for having quality athletes and academics. Then it's our job to keep it going."

Garson, now a sophomore at UC Santa Barbara, has a younger brother in the eighth grade at Harvard-Westlake's middle school. He laughs when thinking that it costs him less to attend college now than what he paid for his high school education at Harvard-Westlake.

"As crazy as it sounds, it's worth it," he said. "Every penny is worth it. Everything you pay comes back. It's already as good as you possibly think it can get and it gets better and better. It's as close to college as any high school could be."

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(color) Junior Ryan Smiley hits the books and the basketball court for Harvard-Westlake. Evan Yee / Daily News Box Harvard-Westlake Profile