SPORTS CENTER COMING INTO PLAY; EVENT HELD AT SITE OF FUTURE WEST HILLS COMPLEX.

Byline: Ivan Sciupac Daily News Staff Writer

Aaron Cohen is pretty sure his son wants to be a basketball player.

But 4-year-old Benjamin seems to be more into eating cotton candy and sitting atop his father's shoulders than he is shooting baskets - for the time being.

``Maybe next year,'' Cohen says confidently.

Next year could be a possibility, however, with a new $4.5 million Sports and Youth Complex set to open in the neighborhood.

At the groundbreaking ceremony in the heart of the Bernard Milken Jewish Community Campus on Sunday, parents such as Cohen said a new recreation center for their children is long overdue.

``When my son is old enough, I would love for him to be able to come down and shoot hoops with other kids in the neighborhood,'' Cohen said.

In response to such a growing need, the center has raised enough money over the past year to create the sports complex. The groundbreaking ceremony was held Sunday afternoon at the West Hills campus.

The carnivalesque event brought out families, sports figures and political leaders, who enjoyed the sunny weather and expansive campus grounds. Dunking booths, stage dancing, blue cotton candy and ice-cold snow cones were the main attractions of the day.

``I think it's more important than ever to build safe havens for young people,'' said Lowell Milken, president of the Milken Family Foundation and keynote speaker at the event. ``This is a place where we can say to young people, This is your community center as well.''

City Councilwoman Laura Chick also attended the event, briefly addressing the scattered crowd.

``This center has been such a good neighbor to this community,'' Chick said.

When it opens in the summer of 1999, the nonsectarian complex will feature a 12,000-square-foot gymnasium with telescopic bleacher seating, a 3,000-square-foot multipurpose fitness center and a 2,000-square-foot youth center.

The community center, which has served as a sort of welcome mat for a large portion of Jews in the San Fernando Valley since it opened in 1987, offers a preschool, fitness facility and several social services to the community.

``By building this sports complex, we'll be servicing a whole spectrum of age groups,'' said Arthur Jablon, president of The Jewish Federation/Valley Alliance. The completed center will be the ``central address'' for the Jewish population, he said.