Manual Arts Aiming to Complete Title Run

The Manual Arts boys’ basketball team has lately looked like a team determined to finish the job it started last season when the Toilers reached the City championship game.

Manual Arts (16-3), which plays Hamilton on Friday and Palisades on Wednesday, is ranked 10th in the state this week by Cal-Hi Sports.

Manual Arts, which lost to Division I state champion Westchester in last year’s City final, features one of the Southland’s most dynamic guard tandems in seniors James Wright and Curtis Millage, ultra-quick left-handers who create matchup problems for virtually every opponent.

“Last year, we had only three seniors and we were up and down the roller-coaster ride all year,” said Randolph Simpson, in his 11th season as coach of the Toilers. “This year, we have the talent to compete and the experience to finish a game. The guys really believe they belong with the elite teams.”

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The Los Angeles High boys’ basketball team has been ruled ineligible for the playoffs and the school’s entire athletic program has been put on probation through the end of the 1999-2000 school year.

The boys’ basketball team was penalized last week by the section’s rules committee for using four ineligible players, said Barbara Fiege, the section’s athletics commissioner.

The girls’ volleyball team also was forced to forfeit seven matches from last season because of errors that were discovered during a review of the school’s procedures for determining athletic eligibility.

All teams, with the exception of boys’ basketball, remain eligible for the playoffs unless another infraction occurs.

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A final releaguing proposal was passed by the Interscholastic Athletic Committee this week and schools have until Friday to submit appeals.

The proposal changes the format from seven conferences to nine leagues. Seven of the leagues will have six teams, one league will have seven and the Magnet League will continue to have 13.