Maybe it’s time to write a folk song about the demise of City Section basketball, using the music of Peter, Paul and Mary and a new title, “Where Have All the Players Gone?”
The talent level apparently bottomed out just a year after Alijah Arenas was a McDonald’s All-American at Chatsworth High and Tajh Ariza led Westchester to the City Section Open Division title. Because their parents went to City Section schools, Arenas and Ariza stuck it out. After that, Arenas graduated early to join USC and Ariza went to St. John Bosco, then a preparatory school.
Westchester is where Ed Azzam won 15 City titles in 42 seasons until his retirement in 2021. At Crenshaw, Willie West won 16 City titles and eight state titles. At Taft, Derrick Taylor won four City titles and coached future NBA players Jordan Farmar, Larry Drew II and AJ Johnson. Fairfax is where Harvey Kitani coached for 35 years, winning four City titles and two state titles and earning most of his nearly 1,000 victories. He was followed by Steve Baik and Reggie Morris Jr., each of whom won City Championships before leaving.
None of the city’s schools, once considered the best in Southern California, are anywhere close to their glory days, and they’re not alone. The city section lost most of its talent and it was truly Hall of Fame talent: Marques Johnson and John Williams at Crenshaw; Gail Goodrich at Sun Valley Poly; Willie Naulls in San Pedro; Dwayne Polee at Manual Arts; Gilbert Arenas in Grant; Trevor Ariza in Westchester; Chris Mills in Fairfax. The successes were decades.
No one is to blame. You can’t even attribute the fall solely to the Los Angeles Unified School District, whose high schools compete in the City Section.
But LAUSD has done nothing to reverse this trend, and it hasn’t helped matters by opening so many new schools in such a rapid fashion that longtime old schools have lost their luster due to declining enrollment. Things became even more disruptive when charter schools and private schools emerged that took top athletes. Adding to the further exodus has been the loss of experienced coaches frustrated by red tape and rules that force programs to secure permits and pay to use their own gyms in the off-season.
Westchester is 2-8 this season and exemplifies where City Section basketball stands. The two best players from last season — Gary Ferguson and Jordan Ballard — are now in St. Bernard. Westchester doesn’t even have a list posted on MaxPreps. King/Drew won their first City Open division title in 2024 under coach Lloyd Webster. This season, Webster sent his older son Josahn to Rolling Hills Prep to play for Kitani. King/Drew is 4-10.
Birmingham, Palisades and Granada Hills charter schools separated in virtually every City Section sport, including basketball. They have no enrollment limits if there is room for a student. Palisades lost so many students to last year’s fire that the transfers have been a big asset to his teams this school year. Online courses are offered to help students enroll and compete in charter school sports.
The old inner-city powers—Crenshaw, Dorsey, Jefferson, Locke, and Fremont—have experienced major demographic changes. Many coaches are walk-ons and not teachers. The older schools have to compete with charter schools View Park Prep, Triumph, Animo Watts, Animo Robinson, WISH Academy and USC-MAE. When young players are discovered and developed, they rarely stick around when they are spotted in the offseason by one of the private schools or AAU coaches scouting for talent.
Do I know what’s left? Nothing much.
Palisades, Washington Prep and Cleveland look like the top three teams this season. All three added gears to help reverse the downtrend. And yet, their records are 3-10, 8-8 and 7-6, respectively, against mostly South Section teams.
Maybe it can be an accidental one-year slump and the climb back up can begin, with the help of coaches who recognize that their job is to teach basketball, life, and college prep lessons. Parents need a reason to send their children to an urban school. It is up to LAUSD and principals to help change the trajectory by finding coaches with integrity, passion and a willingness to embrace the role of underdog.
There are a lot of people in the system doing their best. It’s time to start listening and responding to their pleas for help.
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