METRO CONFERENCE / PREVIEW : Sweetwater Picked to Win Title Again

Sweetwater High, with four returning starters from a 25-3 team, is the unanimous pick of Metro Conference coaches to win the boys’ basketball conference again as the 1989-90 season gets under way Wednesday.

“They look really polished,” Chula Vista Coach Mike Collins said. “Down the road some of us may catch up a little, but we’re not there yet.”

The Red Devils with returning starters Joe McDowell, Carlos Campbell, John Gilbert and Melvin Rushing are loaded with quickness and leapers, conducive to their full-court pressing style of play.

After Sweetwater, Metro coaches place Chula Vista, Bonita Vista, Southwest and Hilltop in a group most likely disrupt the favorite.

None of the existing eight Metro teams has ever won a section basketball championship. Since divisional playoffs began two years ago taking the place of the 3-A/2-A class structure playoffs, no Metro team has advanced past the quarterfinal round.

Sweetwater, among others, hopes to change that in 1989-90.

THE RACE

Top contender: Sweetwater (25-3 in 1988-89).

Surprise potential: Chula Vista (13-15), Southwest (21-8), Bonita Vista (5-18), Hilltop (11-16).

Hoping for improvement: Castle Park (8-16), Mar Vista (6-19), Montgomery (0-20).

Game of the year: Sweetwater at Chula Vista, Feb. 12. Second to last game of the season for both teams could determine the championship, if Sweetwater hasn’t already clinched. The game was to have been played Wednesday but was rescheduled because Sweetwater, the county’s only year-round high school, is on a three-week break.

THE PLAYERS

The men: Sweetwater Coach David Ybarra had a brief scare last week when his star guards, Joe McDowell and Carlos Campbell, both suffered injuries in the first quarter against Mira Mesa. Both injuries--McDowell hurt his shooting (right) wrist and Campbell fell on and strained his lower back--proved to be minor, and they both returned to the game.

McDowell and Campbell are--by nearly every coaches assessment--the men to watch in the conference. McDowell, a 6-2 senior, is a four-year starter for the Red Devils. After five games this year, he is averaging 18.2 points. Campbell, a 6-4 senior, is a three-year starter averaging 11.8 points.

This past summer both played in Los Angeles’ prestigious Slam ‘n’ Jam summer league.

Who will fill Will Tate’s shoes? Will Tate, now a defensive back for San Diego State’s football team, was a Times All-County first-team selection. In leading Southwest to a 21-8 mark, Tate averaged 17.4 points, six assists and five steals.

And now that he’s gone? “We can’t find anybody to fill his shoes,” Southwest Coach Steve Selland said. “I’ve tried several guys, but it’s going to take awhile.”

Selland said in the long run one of three sophomores will fill Tate’s point guard position. They are Darren Davis, Rod Lerma and Joe Cruz.

Others to watch on offense: Guard John Gilbert, averaging 12.8 points, adds a third ingredient to a potent Sweetwater attack. Chula Vista’s Shane Howell (12.8-point average) and Derek Chapman (10), Montgomery’s George Scott (20), Mar Vista’s Tim Page (13.5) and Tim O’Neal (13) are off to good starts.

Allen McNamee (18), Mike Barnett (17) and Rope Perry (17) give Bonita Vista a formidable scoring trio. Aldaberto Silva, if eligible, is a four-year starter for Southwest and one of the county’s best players.

THE INTANGIBLES

Less is more: For the fifth consecutive year, there is a change in the makeup of the Metro Conference. Last year, the conference fielded 10 teams that played an unbalanced 14-game season. This year, Coronado and Marian decided to join the new Harbor League making the Metro an eight-team league with a 14-game symmetrical season.

“I think it’s good for (Coronado and Marian), and it’s good for us,” Castle Park Coach Dan Winters said.

Said Hilltop Coach Chip Holmes, “I never liked playing Coronado in that gym anyway. That was one team I’m glad to see go.”

Less is more, Part II: Former Kentucky Coach Adolph Rupp’s 1965-66 team finished second in the NCAA tournament losing to Texas Western despite its tallest starter being 6-5. The team became known as “Rupp’s Runts”.

Despite its tallest player being 6-4 and the next closest being 6-2, Sweetwater’s “Diminutive Devils” should challenge for the section’s Division I championship.

“Ever since I’ve been here, we haven’t been big,” McDowell said. “We just have to play good defense, get the ball out and run.”

Less is unfortunate : Led by Silva, there are a number of talented players who will not be playing when league-play begins. Silva, after a long dispute with the section over his desire to transfer to Sweetwater, returned to Southwest but was declared academically ineligible Friday.

Southwest also lost Laurence Estes, who moved out of the state. Kansas transfers Jermayne Montgomery and James Mathews of Montgomery are awaiting word on their eligibility from Kendall Webb, the section’s commissioner. Under CIF rules an out-of-state transfer living with guardians--as the two are--must be declared hardships or sit out a year.

Mar Vista sophomore Porgie Yokley, a talented Virginia transfer, has decided not to play this season. Chula Vista’s Louie Zumstein, a Times second-team football selection at offensive tackle expected to be recruited by Division I schools, has decided to concentrate on working out for football.

Casey June, who would have been a three-year starter at Bonita Vista, is playing soccer this year for the defending 3-A champion Barons.

Castle Park’s Benji Gil, is eligible, but may or may not play this season to concentrate on his studies and baseball.