Sylmar, Reseda Earn Top Spots

Despite several disparaging remarks by rival football coaches about the strength--or weakness--of the competition in the Valley Pac-8 Conference, Sylmar and Reseda highs were seeded first in the City Section 4-A and 3-A division brackets at the football playoff seeding meeting Friday.

The morning after the conclusion of the regular season, six coaches--one from each City conference--and an athletic director met near downtown Los Angeles to determine which of the City’s 49 teams would make the playoffs.

A year ago, a second-place finish in league play guaranteed a berth. Not so this year. The committee of seven not only determined who made the playoffs, they also decided in what division each team would play--in some cases regardless of a team’s record.

Sylmar (10-0), the only undefeated team in the City, is seeded No. 1 in the 4-A for the third year in a row and will face University in the first round. The Spartans were top-seeded in 1992 when they beat Carson, 17-0, in the championship game. Sylmar lost to Carson, 22-21, in a semifinal game in ’93.

Reseda (7-3), which finished second in the Valley Pac-8 at 6-1, requested and was granted a 3-A berth and will play Birmingham in the first round.

By old standards, Reseda would have been placed in the 4-A based on its finish in conference play. Ditto for Wilson (8-2), which finished second to Franklin at 6-1 in the Northern Conference. Wilson also requested and was granted a 3-A berth and will play Chatsworth.

Taft (9-1), which went undefeated in Northwest Valley Conference play, was seeded second in the 4-A for the second consecutive year and is one of seven conference teams that earned playoff berths.

Other Valley teams in the 4-A are Granada Hills (seeded 10th), San Fernando (13th) and Kennedy (14th). In the 3-A are Monroe (eighth), Cleveland (10th), Van Nuys (11th), Chatsworth (13th) and Birmingham (16th).

Reactions were mixed regarding the new playoff format, which emphasized strength of conference and preseason schedule rather than final conference record. Those criteria did not bode well for North Hollywood Coach Gary Gray, the Valley Pac-8 representative at the meeting who watched his Huskies’ playoff bid get voted down.

“We thought a win (Thursday) would get us into the playoffs,” said Gray, one of seven voting members on the coaches’ committee.

“I think we got the best 16 teams in the 4-A, but I’m very disappointed with the 3-A.”

Despite the No. 1 berths for Sylmar and Reseda, the Valley Pac-8 took it on the chin. Of the six conferences in the City, only the Coastal and Valley Pac-8 sent as few as four teams to the playoffs. The Southern Pacific matched the Northwest Valley with seven playoff teams.

Six of the 32 teams earning playoff berths had worse conference records than North Hollywood (3-7), which finished 3-4 in Valley Pac-8 play. Birmingham (4-5-1), which won its first Northwest Valley Conference game Thursday, earned a playoff berth in the 3-A, despite its dismal 1-5-1 conference record and seventh-place finish.

Clearly the system is not perfect. Already several coaches have knocked the format. But for the time being, this is the system in operation.

“I think this is a good system,” said Lee Joseph, consultant for the City football playoffs. “Basically this system, which is not a polished system, allows us more flexibility and input. We’re not locked into a certain amount of rules. This is not concrete.”

North Hollywood earned playoff berths the past two seasons with two conference victories. But with the new playoff format, North Hollywood’s preconference losses to two 4-A playoff teams might have cost the team a playoff berth.

“If that’s the case, I wouldn’t have scheduled a Franklin or a Kennedy (in the preseason),” Gray said. “I learned my lesson.

“The hardest thing is trying to explain this to 50 football players. They’ll be very disappointed.”

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