HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL PREVIEW : Camarillo, Simi Valley Rate Highly Again

Camarillo and Simi Valley highs are again expected to battle for the Marmonte League boys’ basketball title, but John Harbour isn’t concerned.

Not at the moment, at least.

Harbour, in his 11th season as Camarillo’s coach, is more concerned with his players regaining their health. Three have already been sidelined with various ailments and that has slowed the development of a team already thinned by the graduation of five seniors.

“Right now, it’s hurting us in practice,” Harbour said. “We’re trying to develop some younger players and paying the price for gaining experience.”

Third-year starter Scott Foster, a 6-foot-5 senior, is battling a throat infection and chest cold and might not travel to Page, Ariz., for an eight-team tournament this week.

“That just decimates us,” Harbour said.

Leonard Lopez (separated shoulder) and third-team all-league selection Rick Schnell (sprained thumb, throat virus) will be in uniform as Camarillo meets Farmington, N. M., in a first-round game at 5:45 tonight.

“We’re getting healthy,” Harbour said. “When we’re 100 percent, we should be a better team.”

Camarillo (1-1), which tied Simi Valley for the league championship last season, still isn’t bad, by any standard. It has high-scoring guard David Harbour, the coach’s son. The 6-3 senior averaged 21.1 points a game and was a second-team All-CIF selection last season. Schnell has averaged 18.5 points to help ease the pain of the loss of Foster.

Simi Valley is off to a 3-2 start, having lost only to Division 2-A power Santa Clara and 5-A power Capistrano Valley. Jeff Marciano, Simi Valley’s leading scorer on last year’s 17-9 team, has graduated but three all-league players return and Coach Dean Bradshaw, known for his inspiring slogans, has deemed this season, “The Drive for Five”.

Last season, Bradshaw called Simi Valley’s bid for a fourth consecutive title “One More for Four.”

But it will be the drive of three--Mike Wawryk, Steve Carnes and Kenny Hood--that will be the key to the Pioneers’ success. Wawryk, a 6-6 senior center, is averaging 16 points a game. Carnes, a 6-1 senior, is averaging 15 points and Hood, a 6-4 senior, is averaging 13 points and nine rebounds.

Westlake, which finished third in league play last year at 8-4, lost Kurt Schwan, the league’s player of the year, and four other starters to graduation. As a result, the Warriors must rely on a large front line of B. J. Sena (6-6), Jon Van Spyk (6-6), Matt Heckmann (6-7) and Dave Meriage (6-6) and hope their inexperienced guards mature.

Westlake is 3-2, but it has not been easy. Sena, a junior who scored 26 points in Westlake’s opening game in the St. Monica tournament, has been slowed by a knee injury.

And the guards have struggled under full-court pressure. Westlake committed 66 turnovers in two consecutive games but still managed two victories and a consolation title.

Four starters, including all-league selection Russell Myers, return at Royal. Myers averaged 19.3 points and 10.2 rebounds for last year’s team that finished fourth in league play at 7-5 and had its best season in 15 years.

But Myers, who scored 54 points as Royal split its first two games, is out until at least next week because of mononucleosis.

Three other returning starters--Chad Smith (6-5), Chris Moriarty (6-3) and Greg Laranjo (5-8)--must pick up the scoring slack in Myers’ absence. Royal also can look to 6-6 juniors Jared Byrne and Kevin Hambly for help in the middle.

Thousand Oaks’ Chris Loll and Dusty Lysobey have stepped forward to provide Mike Sandlin--the Lancers’ only returning starter--with some offensive support. Loll, a 6-4 junior who was the junior varsity’s most valuable player last year, has averaged 21.2 points for the 1-3 Lancers. Lysobey, a 6-3 junior, is averaging 14 points and eight rebounds and providing much-needed help after moving up from last year’s 16-6 junior varsity.

Newbury Park is off to a 3-1 start and apparently has overcome the loss of Wayne Cook, the county’s leading scorer last season. Five lettermen and two starters return from last season’s 13-11 team.

One of those returnees, junior Chris Falzone, was a third-team all-league choice last season and is averaging 16 points. Senior Kevin Loveall (6-8) is grabbing more than 10 rebounds a game and guard Brian Smith (5-11) had eight steals in a 54-42 win over Hueneme.

Channel Islands, behind 6-1 junior Marlo Durmiendo’s scoring, has already won three times as many games as last year. The Raiders are 3-1, after winning only one of 20 games last season.

Durmiendo is averaging 15.2 points, including a 30-point performance in a 94-77 win over Santa Ynez, to help overcome the loss of Renard Carn. Carn, a 6-3 forward, is out until January because of a broken right arm he suffered during football season.