Valencia Adds Spice to Poster Tradition

Girl Power has taken over in the Santa Clarita Valley, where the Valencia High girls’ basketball team has spiced things up with another creative promotional campaign.

The team’s “Vikes World” poster schedule, a spoof of the Spice Girls’ “Spice World” video cover, can be seen in storefronts throughout Santa Clarita.

The poster features players wearing their basketball uniforms and trendy platform shoes while standing in front of a globe. Where the video cover featured the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben and a double-decker bus, Valencia has substituted the landmark Sky Tower at Six Flags Magic Mountain, a viking ship and a school bus.

They even put a twist on the movie’s motto, “Five girls. Five days. One Rocking World”: “Thirteen Girls. Four Months. One Rocking Season.”

This is the second consecutive season the Vikings have gone with the movie poster theme.

Last season, they donned dark sunglasses for a “Women in Purple” (WiP) poster, a take-off of the Will Smith-Tommy Lee Jones comedy “Men in Black” (MiB).

“It’s already become like a tradition,” senior forward Jennifer Brackeen said. “Everybody gets into it.”

The Women in Purple poster was so successful that Coach Greg Hayes began to feel off-season pressure to produce another smash.

“It was incredible,” he said. “Everybody kept asking, ‘What are you going to do for a poster this year?’ ”

To add to the suspense, not even the players were informed which movie would be spoofed until two days before the two-hour photo shoot.

“It was all very secret,” Brackeen said.

Valencia (5-5), which begins play in the Bell-Jeff tournament on Saturday, has not started Foothill League play, yet debate has already begun over the theme of next season’s poster.

“Someone suggested we do ‘A Bug’s Life,’ ” Hayes said.

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Every year, El Camino Real starts the season with a winning streak.

And, every year, the same question is asked: Who have they played?

The Conquistadores’ 6-3 record isn’t as glitzy as in past seasons, but they entered three tournaments in an effort to make their nonconference schedule more competitive.

They finished fourth in the Washington tournament, are currently participating in the Simi Valley tournament and will compete in the Bell-Jeff tournament, which begins Saturday.

“I wanted to toughen up the schedule,” El Camino Real Coach Lori Chandler said. “We’re right there in the thick of things, trying to get as much experience as we can.”

The Conquistadores lost to Simi Valley, ranked No. 5 in the region by The Times, 64-58.

“We’re competing with that caliber of a team on any given night,” Chandler said. “When conference comes along, we’ll be rolling.”

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Better late than never.

North Hollywood Coach Rich Allen could say that about his team’s game against Crescenta Valley on Saturday and about the Huskies themselves.

The start of the Burroughs tournament final was delayed 1 1/2 hours to 9 p.m. because preceding games ended later than expected.

“It was just one of those days,” Allen said. [Crescenta Valley Coach] Damian [Scribner] and I were looking at each other like, ‘Well, midnight madness, I guess.’ ”

North Hollywood (6-3) battled Crescenta Valley (10-0), ranked No. 2 in the region by The Times, before losing, 54-52, in overtime.

Crescenta Valley’s Kristie Umemoto made a three-point basket from the corner--”I think she was in the second row of the bleachers,” Allen said--with 24 seconds left to send the game into overtime.

Allen said the game marked the Huskies’ arrival after a disappointing start this season. North Hollywood, which won the Washington tournament last season, lost a close decision in the final this year. And the Huskies were routed by Harvard-Westlake, one of the region’s top programs, after beating the Wolverines last season.

But North Hollywood has received improved play of late from junior wing Toni Lashley, a transfer from Arkansas, and Anna Janoyan, a freshman who backs up standout guard Tashean Thomas.

“We’ve been in championship games in the Burroughs and Washington tournaments,” Allen said. “Now we’ve got to learn to win those games. But we’ve come a long way.”

Correspondents Mike Bresnahan, Dave Desmond and Lauren Peterson contributed to this notebook.