Bringing L.A. Together on the Court : Basketball: Area youth team is composed of players with different social and economic backgrounds.

Reinaldo Henry Ala sat in the stands of the West Torrance High gym and recounted his success as a youth basketball coach: 13 major tournament championships in the past three years, a fourth-place finish at a national tournament in 1992 with a 13-and-under team and an undefeated 11-and-under team this year.

The 11-and-under team, the 4-D Stars, have qualified for the Amateur Athletic Union national championships this month in Orlando, Fla.

But rather than discuss his team’s success, Henry Ala, 36, prefers to talk about his commitment to the players.

“I want to develop the kids for the future,” he says. “Not just as athletes, but as people.”

Henry Ala’s team is composed of youths with different social and economic backgrounds.

The team’s 14 players come from Torrance, Redondo Beach, Inglewood, Rancho Palos Verdes, Palos Verdes Estates, Hermosa Beach, Ladera Heights, South Los Angeles and Hawaiian Gardens.

“You need to have kids from different areas with different cultures and different ways of living,” Henry Ala said. “I’m showing that people from (Palos Verdes) can play with people from the city and vice versa. In our city, with the riots and the tension, it’s important to come together through basketball.”

The 4-D Stars’ logo is a circle with a triangle inside. Outside the triangle are the words dedication, desire, determination and defense. On the bottom of the logo are the phrases drug-free and gang-free.

The idea behind the Stars began when Henry Ala met Bob Dworkin in the early 1980s. They met at an adult basketball league in Palos Verdes that Henry Ala was officiating, and each lamented the lack of youth leagues in the area.

In 1991, Henry Ala coached a 13-and-under all-star team at the Inglewood YMCA. With Dworkin’s help, the team was entered in a Northern California tournament and qualified for the AAU national championships in Florida. Dworkin has remained as team manager.

The 1991 team was all black. Last year’s 13-and-under team had 14 black players and one white player--David Cann. Henry Ala saw the need to increase ethnic diversity.

“(Cann) was the Jackie Robinson of the 4-Ds, he broke the color barrier,” Henry Ala said. “He came from nowhere and worked and worked and became the starting point guard. After that, everybody else started coming.”

Henry Ala calls this year’s 11-and-under team the most ethnically diverse he has coached. The team includes six blacks, six whites and two Asians.

“They come from all over and there may be problems out there, but the second they come into the gym, all they want to do is play,” said Mike Miller of Palos Verdes Estates, whose son Nick plays on the Stars.

“No one really thinks about (the different backgrounds),” said Andrew Zahn, a six-foot post player from Hermosa Beach.

“My thing is unity, camaraderie,” Henry Ala said. “I don’t want to coach races, I want to coach people.”

The Stars are financed by fund raising, and Henry Ala volunteers his time. He has lost players to corporate-sponsored teams who lured the youths with shoes and clothes.

Parents of some of the players have worked together to produce an informational packet detailing the team’s accomplishments and expenses. They hope to use the packet to raise $12,000 needed to send the team to the national tournament.

“I’ve got a bunch of kids from different races who have come together, and I’ve got parents who mingle and fund-raise that would never have met,” Henry Ala said. “This team has given more than I asked. That’s what it is all about.”