CHATTER: WANTED: HOOPS SPONSOR.

Byline: Lee Barnathan Staff Writer

After a successful season in which his team went 13-0, North Hollywood freshman boys' basketball coach Rob Allen naturally would like to see how the Huskies fare against the rest of the City.

But he can't. There's no City freshman or sophomore boys' tournament.

This frustrates Allen because North Hollywood might have won such a title. It averaged 70 points a game and beat opponents by an average of 30 points.

Adam Nicklas made 32 out of 54 3-pointers. Christian Lira averaged 17 points per game. Eric Salas and Donald Coates averaged 12 rebounds per game. DeAndre Lamar averaged 14 points and 10 rebounds.

It's not that the City section doesn't favor such a tournament. In 1998, City commissioner Barbara Fiege told the coaches if they wanted one, it could be done - provided they take care of logistics.

City administrator Jeff Halpern explains: ``If someone is willing to pay some costs or put it up and run it, it can be done, and I'm assuming it can be done. The concern is time. Gym time is at a premium and everybody knows that. We have girls' volleyball playoffs, we've got afterschool basketball.''

Allen knows it also doesn't help that so many frosh-soph coaches are walk-ons and don't stick around for many years. Plus, how to tell varsity basketball or volleyball teams that they can't practice because a frosh-soph team needs the gym for a tournament?

Still, Allen said he knows a postseason tournament is what the players want. But until enough people get organized, the kids will have to wait until they're on the varsity. . . .

College update: Former Antelope Valley kicker Chad Shrout, now at Hawaii, has adjusted nicely to the new coaching staff headed by June Jones. Shrout used to have to kick in specific directions but now he is being asked to kick the ball as high and far as he can, and he has responded with a 41.9-yard average.

``They give me the freedom to kick the long ball,'' Shrout said this week. ``And why not? It's what I'm better at.'' . . .

An update on hometown athletes competing for Emory University, a Division III school in Atlanta:

Montclair Prep graduate David Warsavsky, a midfielder, has started 15 matches and is fourth on the team with 10 points (3 goals, 4 assists). Emory is 10-2-3.

Former Rio Mesa runner Summer Stewart is the No. 2 runner. She ran 19 minutes, 44 seconds and finished 15th of 74 at the conference championships, missing the all-conference team by one spot. Emory finished second.

Encino resident Lauren Gordon has played sparingly, mostly in the back row, on the volleyball team, ranked 12th in the nation. . . .

Former Paraclete forward Lisa Ament scored a goal and assisted on another to help Cal State San Bernardino beat Cal State Los Angeles 2-1. Ament was California Collegiate Athletic Association Player of the Week Oct. 11. . . .

Calabasas High softball standout Heather Bell has orally committed to Southern Mississippi. Bell, a first baseman, was the Frontier League Player of the Year last season, then played for the Stealth 18-under Gold team. . . .

Crescenta Valley swimmer Travis Taylor has committed to Clemson. . . .

Crescenta Valley's baseball team is holding a camp Dec. 27-28 from 9 a.m.-noon at Glendale's Stengel Field. It's run by coach Phil Torres, his staff and players. Information: [phone].