The time has come for two-time defending state Division I boys' basketball champion Westchester High to unleash its most ferocious full-court press of the season on Friday, when the Comets' postseason fate is decided on the 25th floor of a downtown office building.
Three administrators from the Los Angeles Unified School District will hear Westchester's appeal of a decision made last month by the City Section rules committee that banned the Comets from postseason play for one season for an alleged recruiting violation.
Also at stake is the junior season of 6-foot-9 transfer Amir Johnson, who was declared ineligible for allegedly giving false testimony. He has already missed nine games and can't practice with the team. And assistant coach Marlon Morton was forced to disassociate himself from Westchester.
This case centers on who's telling the truth and who's lying.
The rules committee decided to believe the testimony of two L.A. Verbum Dei administrators and one parent that Morton was seen twice with Johnson last summer in the Verbum Dei gym. In the most serious allegation, the administrator, Vernon Owens, said that he overheard Morton telling Johnson to transfer during an open-gym workout.
Johnson, who led Verbum Dei to the Southern Section Division IV-A championship last season, testified that the incidents never took place. Morton has been even more adamant, calling the allegations "blatant lies."
Westchester is expected to counter the Verbum Dei allegations with a witness who didn't appear at the last hearing, Arizona guard Hassan Adams, a former Westchester and Verbum Dei player in town this weekend because Arizona is playing USC and UCLA.
Adams was identified by Owens as playing in a pickup game with Johnson on the day of one of the incidents. If Adams denies ever being in the gym with Johnson and can prove it, that could open the way to discrediting the Verbum Dei allegations.
As Johnnie Cochran might say, "If the timeline doesn't fit, you must acquit."
The problem is, when people have to decide who's telling the truth, they must gauge the credibility of witnesses and evidence, and both sides have weaknesses.
Westchester officials have become almost yearly visitors to the rules committee. In 2000, the boys' basketball program was placed on probation for one year because Adams played for Westchester in a summer tournament while still enrolled at Verbum Dei.
