High Schools : MVP Award No Stranger to Harbour

When David Harbour walked away Thursday with the most valuable player award of the Thousand Oaks basketball tournament, it surprised none but the unknowing. Harbour, Camarillo High’s sophomore point guard, has hardly burst onto the scene. The prep scene, maybe. The basketball scene, a different story.

“David’s played a lot of basketball,” said Camarillo Coach John Harbour, who is also David’s father. “He’s put in a lot of time over a long period of time, so he deserves to play well.”

Youth leagues have been David’s training grounds. As early as sixth grade, he was competing in tournaments in Las Vegas and coming away with all-tournament and MVP recognition.

In 1986-87, John Harbour took a 1-year sabbatical from coaching at Camarillo to, among other reasons, coach an Amateur Athletic Union team comprising 14-and-under boys. That team won the Southern California championship and finished fourth in the nation. David was the point guard.

“In eighth grade, there isn’t much attention, so it was just the kids’ thing,” John Harbour said. “They didn’t get much notoriety then.”

That, however, is beginning to change. David averaged nearly 20 points a game as a freshman on the Scorpions’ junior varsity. In Camarillo’s 64-49 victory over Thousand Oaks to win the Lancers’ tournament, he scored 30 points and had 13 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals. Twelve of his points were on 3-point shots. He averaged 24.7 points in the 3-game tournament, which included an upset win over Newbury Park.

David has sprouted to 6 feet, 1 inch and has become broader in the shoulders through an off-season weightlifting program.

“I’m pretty happy right now,” he said. “I could be shooting a little better, but I’m happy.”

Said John of his son’s most recent MVP award: “I don’t want to come off the wrong way, but it’s not like it’s the first time.

“I think it’s the experience factor. Dave is by far our most experienced player.”

Add sophomores: Chris Falzone of Newbury Park is another Marmonte League sophomore making an impact. The forward scored 33 points Thursday in the Panthers’ 85-73 victory over Pioneer in the Thousand Oaks tournament third-place game. Falzone, who had not been starting until an injury to Anthony Rutter, was named to the all-tournament team.

Roughed up: Taft’s basketball team recently lost the services of 6-7 center Gilbert Ruff, who left the team under somewhat mysterious circumstances. Taft Coach Jim Woodard chose not to shed light on the subject.

“He’s a high school kid, so I don’t want to spell out any details,” Woodard said. “He helped us, but life goes on.”

Woodard added that Ruff’s departure was “a mutual agreement” between the two. Ruff, who averaged nearly 14 points a game for the 6-1 Toreadors, previously had been enrolled at Cleveland before transferring to Taft.

“It was just something that dropped into our lap and dropped out again,” Woodard said.

Taft begins play in the Eagle Rock tournament Monday with a first-round game against Garfield. Woodard said that he would experiment with 6-5 wing man Tony Middleton in the low post.

Soft schedule: Perhaps it is a down year for Calabasas basketball, but first-year Coach David Hoffman has been the recipient of some kind scheduling, which may make the season less painful.

The Coyotes recently won the consolation championship of the Bel-Air Prep tournament, which featured mostly Southern Section 1-A Division teams. Calabasas is a 3-A school.

“My attitude toward scheduling is you have to assess your talent,” he said. “I think you owe it to yourself to play some tough teams, but you owe it to yourself to let the kids enjoy some success as well.”

Calabasas lost to Cantwell, a 1-A school with an enrollment of 294, in the first round but went on to bury Village Christian and Buckley. The combined enrollment of the Coyotes’ 3 tournament opponents is 1,074, which is 4 more than Calabasas’ 1,070. “I didn’t schedule this schedule,” Hoffman said, “but looking back, it wasn’t a bad idea.”

The Coyotes, after consecutive losses in the Thousand Oaks tournament, are 3-5.

Transition game: Much is made of the sometimes abrupt transition from high school football to basketball. Most players, looking to extract finesse from a body that has known nothing but contact for several months, look somewhat uncomfortable in their first steps back on the hardwood.

San Fernando guard Sean Williams, however, averaged 24 points a game in the Eldorado tournament in Las Vegas and was named to the all-tournament team. Only 2 weeks ago, Williams and the rest of his football teammates were attempting to deal with their loss to Banning in the City 4-A Division semifinals.

Bright Knights: Maury Neville cannot explain it, and he gets frustrated trying. His L. A. Baptist basketball team is off to a 7-2 start, despite fielding just 1 returning starter, Brett Craig, who has been on a day-to-day basis because of an an ankle injury.

The Knights’ losses have been to another 1-A school, Faith Baptist, and a team from the Small Schools Division, Oakwood. Fine. But the Knights have beaten Harvard, Chaminade, St. Genevieve, Fillmore and Santa Maria, all 2-A or 3-A schools.

“Unfortunately, when we get to the playoffs, we’ll have to play 1-A teams,” Neville quipped.

Neville is used to successful starts but not when his team is playing so poorly. The Knights have made only 41% of their field-goal attempts and 56% of their free throws.

“I’ve never had a team shoot less than 60% from the line. . . . And Faith Baptist was the first team to outrebound us in 4 years,” Neville said. “The Raiders have a saying ‘It’s ugly, but it’s a win.’ I don’t want that. I want to go home and know that the kids have played a good game.”

Soccer: Key first-round match-ups between Birmingham-Alemany and Notre Dame-Oak Park mark the opening of the second Hart Holiday boys’ soccer tournament Wednesday at Hart High. The 16-team, 3-day event runs concurrently with an 8-team girls’ tournament.

Alemany is the defending boys’ champion. The inaugural girls’ tournament features favorites Agoura and Chaminade.

Hart Coach Wally McPheeters said that he would like the tournament to become one of the area’s strongest. Among the boys’ favorites are Poly, North Hollywood, Birmingham and Hart.

Making tracks: Rio Mesa will have a new all-weather track in time for the 1989 season. The black, rubberized latex surface should be completed by March 4, in time for the Spartan Relays.

The cost of the renovation, which will include work on the bleachers, has been estimated at $134,000. All-American sprinter Angela Burnham returns for Rio Mesa, the defending girls’ state co-champion.