Southern Section 3-A Playoffs : El Dorado Is Not Fullerton’s Idea of Fun

El Dorado High School’s Terry Conley worked for 11 years as an assistant under former Golden Hawk coaches Nash Rivera and Iran Novick, but he never had a burning desire to be a head coach.

Conley didn’t want to run the show. He preferred to avoid coaching’s extracurricular demands--the booster club meetings, the league meetings, the pressures from parents.

But that changed last year, when he decided to accept the El Dorado job after Ed Ratleff resigned to coach at Cal State Long Beach.

And, after Conley’s first regular season as a head coach, in which the Hawks shared the Empire League championship with Kennedy, he has discovered that being a head coach isn’t so bad.

“I’m enjoying it somewhat,” said the 35-year-old, who did not coach when Ratleff had the program. “The group of kids we have this year is the main reason I got back into coaching, and I’ve told the principal that I’d be back for another five years.”

The group of kids he has this year is enough to keep anyone in coaching. With their fast-break offense, the Hawks have been one of Orange County’s most entertaining teams.

They’re fun to watch--just ask Fullerton Coach Randy Forgette.

The Indians opened the season with a 76-59 loss to El Dorado, and they will play the Hawks at 7:30 tonight in the opening round of the Southern Section 3-A playoffs at El Dorado.

“They’re an exciting team, and it’s fun to see their kids play together,” Forgette said. “Hopefully, they won’t be that fun tonight.”

The Indians (15-9), who finished third in the Freeway League, will have the height advantage, but they won’t be favored to defeat the Hawks (21-3). But Forgette is expecting a closer game.

“We looked like a bunch of scared JV kids in the first game, but I think we’ve come a long way,” he said. “We just can’t run with (El Dorado). If we do, we’ll lose, because we don’t have their kind of quickness.”

The Indians rely on their half-court offense and a big front line of 6-foot 6-inch Chris Zerga, 6-6 R.J. Hamblin and 6-3 Brett Harrill. Ralph Tallant, a 6-2 junior guard, is Fullerton’s leading scorer (averaging 13 points per game). Point guard Richard Carnesi averages 11.6 points and 5.3 assists.

“They’ve got height and the people to bang the boards,” Conley said. “They’re probably as big as Los Alamitos, and we lost to them.”

That was back in January, when the Hawks had back-to-back losses to Los Alamitos and Kennedy. Since then, El Dorado has won seven straight.

The Hawks’ tallest starter is 6-2 forward Jim Sammon, who is averaging 13.3 points per game. Their leading scorer is 6-0 forward Bart Hakeman, who averages 19.3, and 6-2 forward Jim Mansfield averages 13.6. Conley’s game plan is no secret.

“Every game is a running game for us,” he said. “We go into the game thinking we’re going to run. I’m sure they’ll try to get us into a half-court game, like everyone else.”

In other 3-A action:

Valencia (15-9) at Bonita (21-4)--The Tigers advanced to the first round by defeating Rowland, 54-39, in a wild-card game Wednesday night. Junior forward Kevin Jones scored 17 points and grabbed 20 rebounds in the victory, and senior guard Chris Rojo added 15 points. The Hacienda League champion Bearcats are led by 6-8 senior center Greg Trygstad, who is averaging 19.4 points and 14 rebounds per game. Bonita’s front line also includes 6-5 Brian Banker and 6-4 Robert Morthel, who averages 15.1 points.

Troy (10-12) at Nogales (20-6)--The Nobles, second-place representatives out of the Sierra League, are paced by 6-9 center Bruce Wheatley, who averages 16.3 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. The Warriors, who have no players averaging more than 12 points a game, went 4-1 in the second round of Freeway League play. Troy’s best shooters are forward Steve Welch, who hits 56% from the floor, and guard Bill Edwards, who hits 53%. Edwards also averages 4.8 assists.

Centennial (12-11) at Kennedy (19-5)--The Apaches have a height advantage with 6-10 center Kenzie Scott (19.9 points, 11.5 rebounds a game) and 6-9 forward Sidney Moore (8.7 points). Kennedy has never won a first-round playoff game, having lost to Marina, Palos Verdes, Glendale and Lynwood in opening-round games. “I thought this would be the year, after we won the (Empire) League, but we got another tough opponent for the first round,” Irish Coach John Mayberry said. Kennedy is led by Jeff Green (18.1 points per game) and Walt Lauderdale (13.2).

Montclair (16-8) at Rancho Alamitos (13-9)--The Cavaliers finished third in the Hacienda League, but they had a better regular-season record than the Garden Grove League champion Vaqueros. Montclair’s 6-5 senior center Desmond Scieneaux, who averages 14.3 points and 12.5 rebounds, may not play because of a leg injury. That would put much of the offensive load on guard Gary West, a streaky outside shooter who averages 15 points per game. Roger Carter, Rancho Alamitos’ 6-3 guard, leads the team with a 14.3 points per game average.

Whittier (16-6) at Brea-Olinda (22-4)--The Orange League champion Wildcats have 13 straight victories. They are led by 6-9 center Kevin Walker, who averages 20.4 points and 9.6 rebounds per game, and forward Dave Fox, who averages 15.6 and 7.8. The Cardinals, who finished third in the Whitmont League, are making their first playoff appearance since 1978. They rely heavily on 6-3 center Andy Olivares, who averages 22 points and 12 rebounds. Olivares injured his ankle two weeks ago but came back to score 28 points in the season finale against Montebello and will be at full strength tonight.

La Quinta (10-11) at Savanna (19-7)--The Rebels qualified for the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season under Coach Tom Gregory after failing to make the post-season tournament for 18 years before 1982. Savanna is led by all-around forward in Tim Pittman, who averages 20.9 points and 10 rebounds per game, and a solid guard in Trevor Hoffman, who averaged 5 assists. The Aztecs lost to the Rebels, 45-44, in the first round of the Sonora Tournament last December. “About the only thing I remember about that game was that it was extremely sloppy,” La Quinta Coach Jim Perry said.

Katella (19-4) at Buena Park (14-8)--The Coyotes, who are led by point guard Reggie Brown (15.3 points and 5.5 assists a game) and guard Aurilo Solis (11.1 points), are making their first playoff appearance since 1979. They won their first (Freeway) league title this season in 25 years. The Knights finished third in the Empire League and are led by Bob Erbst, who averages 19.0 points a game. Three of Katella’s four losses this year came during the league season.

Garden Grove (13-10) at Hacienda Heights Wilson (20-4)--The Argonauts, who finished third in the Garden Grove League, are making their first playoff appearance since 1972. They’ve drawn an extremely tough first-round opponent in the second-seeded Wildcats, champions of the Sierra League. Garden Grove will be led by center Jim O’Connor (11.4 rebounds a game), forward Brent Kaser (9.2 rebounds) and guard Brent Crone (6.1 assists).