The High Schools : Plaisance Knocks Playoff Pairings

Village Christian Coach Mike Plaisance questions a system that allows a 4-6 team into the Southern Section playoffs while excluding an 8-2 team--especially when the excluded team is his own.

The Crusaders defeated 2 playoff-bound teams but missed postseason play because their 2 Alpha League losses left them in a third-place tie.

Included in the Division IX playoffs are California School for the Deaf (4-5) and Leffingwell Christian, a 4-6 team that had to forfeit its last game because of a lack of players. Village Christian defeated Leffingwell Christian, 50-0, in a nonleague game and also defeated Alpha League co-champion Montclair Prep, 23-20.

“I think the executive committee should start looking to see if the top 16 teams are represented in the playoffs,” Plaisance said. “You could ask any coach and they’ll say no they aren’t.”

The current system, Plaisance said, produces first-round mismatches such as Carpinteria (8-2), the Tri-Valley League and last year’s Inland Conference champion, against Southern California Christian, a free-lance school with a 6-2 record.

“Some of those games, you’d have to be a masochist to pay $5 to go see,” he said. “Seriously, I wouldn’t find the Carpinteria-Southern California Christian game entertaining. I think they’ll have three blowouts in the first round. I think some of the administrators should ask themselves if they are doing the kids an injustice or a service by sending some of these teams to play the No. 1 bid.”

Signing: Kenny Hicks, a 6-foot-4, 170-pound guard at Notre Dame, has signed a letter of intent with Stanford, choosing the Cardinal over Santa Clara, Gonzaga (Spokane, Wash.) and the Air Force Academy. Hicks averaged 16.4 points a game last season and was named to the All-Del Rey League first team.

To the letter: Just before Taft point guard Dedan Thomas signed with Nevada Las Vegas last week, he received a package from the school in the mail. Inside the Federal Express envelope was a letter of intent, which Thomas and his mother signed.

Also enclosed was a second Federal Express envelope, sent to ensure a speedy return.

Quipped Taft Coach Jim Woodard: “I guess nobody uses Emery anymore.”

For those with short memories, Emery is the courier service that handled the ill-fated package a University of Kentucky assistant sent to former Fairfax High basketball star Chris Mills last spring.

Sounds familiar: After Crespi lost to Loyola, 15-8, last season, Celts Coach Bill Redell spent more than a few hours doing some serious soul-searching. Russell White had gained only 28 yards in 14 carries, and Redell said that if he “had it all to do over again, I probably wouldn’t have given up on the run so fast.”

After Saturday’s 17-6 loss to Loyola, in which White gained 19 yards in 10 carries, Redell again pointed a finger at himself.

“Should we have fed him the ball more often, that’s a good question,” Redell said. “Ten carries . . . I’ve second-guessed myself all weekend about it. I don’t know what it is. They just seem to have our number as far as running the ball goes.”

In 3 games against Loyola, White gained a total of 143 yards.

Steven Fleischman and staff writers Steve Elling and John Ortega contributed to this notebook.

FOOTBALL TOP 10 Selected by sportswriters of The Times

Last Rk Wk Team League Record 1 2 Canyon Golden 8-2 2 3 San Fernando North Valley 7-3 3 4 Channel Islands Marmonte 8-2 4 1 Granada Hills North Valley 8-2 5 7 Monroe Mid-Valley 8-1 6 8 Notre Dame S.F. Valley 8-2 7 9 Reseda Mid-Valley 8-1 8 5 Crespi Del Rey 5-5 9 6 Thousand Oaks Marmonte 6-3-1 10 NR Taft West Valley 6-3

NR--Not ranked.