Hawthorne’s Victorious Track Coach Wants Tougher Foes

Hawthorne track Coach Kye Courtney is looking to next year when the Cougars move from the six-team Ocean League to the new eight-team Bay League.

He likes the prospect of Hawthorne having more opportunities to run against South Bay teams. So far, local competition has been scarce for the defending state champions.

“We can’t get any dual meets outside of our league,” Courtney complained. “Are you kidding? No one wants to run Hawthorne in a dual meet. Next year it will turn around.”

In other words, Courtney claims area teams have been ducking Hawthorne. He was frustrated at first. He also realizes it may have helped put his program on the map.

“Everybody had an excuse,” he said. “But that’s good. That’s when we started looking for things to do, like the Texas Relays.”

In prep track circles, Courtney is known as a happy wanderer.

He has taken teams to Texas, the East Coast and meets throughout California. The Cougars’ next major excursion will take them to Philadelphia for the Penn Relays on April 28-30.

Courtney said the team raised $10,000 to become the first California high school team to run in the prestigious meet.

“The whole community of Hawthorne has chipped in so we can do this,” he said. “It may be the last time because I don’t know who’s going to raise this kind of money again.”

Whatever it cost, Courtney feels it was worth it. He has fond memories of the Penn Relays. He ran in the meet nine straight years (1955-63) as a member of the track teams at La Salle Military Academy on Long Island, Manhattan College and the Quantico Marines.

One of his biggest thrills came in 1962 when he won the AAU intermediate hurdles for the Marines.

“It’s like going back home,” he said. “Our kids have no idea what it’s like, not even our assistant coaches because they’ve never been there.

“They have about 55,000 people in the stands. In the boys mile relay, there are 500 teams. They run heats from 8:30 in the morning until noon. They run a race every four minutes. They have a track inside a track, with two races going on at once. It’s a wild affair.”

In recent years the 1,600-meter relay has been dominated by high schools from the Caribbean, most notably Jamaican.

“The Jamaicans use the Penn Relays as a showcase,” Courtney said. “It’s a national crusade. They’re bringing us in to break the string.”

Meet organizers couldn’t have picked a better team to carry U.S. hopes. Hawthorne has won five straight state 1,600 relay titles.

This year’s team is headed by senior Travis Hannah, who has a personal best of 46.0 seconds for 400 meters; junior Curtis Conway (46.6) and sophomore star Chris Alexander (49.4). Courtney says the fourth spot will be filled by any of six athletes, which tells you something about Hawthorne’s depth. Three of the candidates are sophomores.

Hawthorne’s next big test will come on April 9 in the 21st annual Arcadia Invitational, traditionally a showcase for the nation’s finest athletes.

Courtney says it’s going to be a “monster meet.”

“They’ve really loaded that meet this year,” he said. “It’s going to be like a national championship.”

In the sprints, Hawthorne’s Conway will be matched against a field that includes Taft’s Quincy Watts, the top sprinter in the country; Michael Bates of Tucson, Ariz., and Brian Bridgewater of L.A.’s Washington High.

Watts bested Conway in their first meeting of the season last Saturday in the Pasadena Games at Occidental College. The Taft senior won the 100 (10.66) and 200 (21.18) while Conway finished second in the 100 (10.73) and third in the 200 (21.58).

Hannah, top entrant in the Arcadia 400, won the quarter mile in the Pasadena Games in 47.01.

One of the South Bay’s best, and most underrated, girls basketball players this past season was Jade Hiramoto of North Torrance.

The 5-7 senior averaged 19.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3 assists a game for North (16-9), which finished second in the Bay League and reached the second round of the Southern Section 3-A playoffs.

Hiramoto was named the Bay League’s most valuable player by the coaches, beating out Palos Verdes’ twin towers--6-4 sisters Heather and Heidi Burge, who led the Sea Kings to the state Division II finals.

PREP NOTES--Eight South Bay basketball players have been named to All-CIF Southern Section teams. James Moses of Serra, the 6-5 senior heading for Iowa, was selected to the 5-A Division team for the third straight year. He averaged 34 points a game. Inglewood’s Harold Miner, a 6-5 junior who averaged 27 points, was named to the 4-A first team. Four area players were chosen to the 3-A squad. Bay League MVP John Hardy, a 6-4 junior who averaged 25 points, and Palos Verdes guard John Mika were picked for the first team, while Leuzinger forward Keith Pullen and West Torrance guard Denny Hocking were second-team choices. Chadwick guard Charlton Jackson was named to the 1-A team and Brad Ermeling of South Bay Lutheran made the Small Schools squad.

South Bay Top 10 Boys’ Baseball

Selected by Times sportswriters

(Records through Tuesday’s games)

Rank, School, League Record 1 Redondo (Pioneer) 9-0 2 San Pedro (Marine) 7-0 3 St. Bernard (Camino Real) 5-2 4 Banning (Marine) 5-2 5 West Torrance (Bay) 6-2 6 Bishop Montgomery (Angelus) 3-2 7 El Segundo (Pioneer) 5-4 8 North Torrance (Bay) 5-3 9 Gardena (Marine) 2-1 10 Mary Star (Camino Real) 6-3