Highschool

Both teams wear uniforms adorned with a familiar swoosh. Only one set is provided complimentary by the company that makes them. Both teams have legendary coaches. Only one is showcased on his own page inside a glossy, quarter-inch-thick season program. Both teams have had storybook seasons. Only one has had its touchdowns chronicled by a play-by-play radio broadcaster. The biggest high school football game in California this year appears to be an even matchup in terms of talent.

Some homecoming queens will cherish that memory forever. Others are finding that it's just a symbol of their unpopularity, yet another opportunity to be bullied.  In West Branch, Mich., the student body of Ogemaw Heights High School nominated 16-year-old Whitney Kropp to the homecoming court - as a gag. "I thought I wasn't worthy," Whitney  told The Detroit News , and it turns out she wasn't. "I was this big old joke. " Other students pointed at her in the hallway and laughed, she said.

At tiny Los Angeles Price, a school of kindergarten through 12th grade in the sprawling Crenshaw Christian Center, Allen Crabbe is the boy everyone has seen grow up before their eyes. His grandfather, the Rev. Frederick K.C. Price, is the founder of the school. Crabbe has been a Price ball boy or student seemingly forever. When Price was winning five state Division V basketball championships in the last decade, he was preparing for his chance to join in the fun. Now he has grown to 6 feet 6, makes three-point baskets as if they were free throws and has the skills to win any dunk contest.

Every March, I get to meet a group of teenagers that, in 10 years, might include the doctor, firefighter or policeman who saves my life. Every March, I get to speak with a group of teenagers that might include the future soldier, fighter pilot or Marine who volunteers to protect our country. Every March, I get to read the resumes of a group of teenagers whose academic and athletic achievements leave little doubt that they will be the community leaders of tomorrow. It's so meaningful to tell the stories of the football scholar-athlete award winners who will be honored this month at banquets in Orange County, San Bernardino County, Riverside County, Pasadena, Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley as part of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame awards program.

An honor roll of athletics Los Angeles High School Sports Hall of Fame Inaugural Class AQUATICS Sammy Lee, Franklin Esther Williams, Washington BASEBALL Ozzie Smith, Locke Bret Saberhagen, Cleveland BASKETBALL Gail Goodrich, Poly...

Before she entered preschool, Nicole Hung's family had picked out her university. It would be Stanford, her father's alma mater. To get her ready, they took her to watch Stanford's Rose Bowl appearance against Wisconsin in 2000. And she saw Stanford star Casey Jacobsen's buzzer-beater against top-ranked Duke later that year at the Pete Newell Challenge. Hung, 17, a Harvard-Westlake senior, has certainly excelled in the classroom and on the court. She has a 4.2 grade-point average, plays the bassoon in the school symphony and her tennis game is strong enough to play on a Division I team, her coach says.

The Times' high school basketball rankings by Ben Bolch: Rk. Team (Rec., Sec.-Div.) Last week's results, next game (last week's ranking) 1 MATER DEI (21-1, SS-Div. 1AA) Def. Servite, 111-36; Las Vegas Bishop Gorman, 82-76. Next: Tuesday at Santa Margarita. (1) 2 WESTCHESTER (20-3, City-Div. I) Def. Fairfax, 80-44; Hamilton, 87-53. Next: Monday vs. Palisades. (2) 3 LONG BEACH POLY (21-3, SS-Div. 1AA)

After nearly five years of talking, tinkering and debating, Los Angeles high schools finally have their own sports hall of fame, with 55 of the best athletes and coaches Southern California has produced inducted into the inaugural class. Included are hall of famers from the NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball, Olympic gold medalists and a Heisman Trophy winner. Barbara Fiege, who as athletics commissioner of the City Section spearheaded the project, said the depth of talent that came through Los Angeles schools during the 20th century "certainly opens your eyes."

You always knew how it was going to turn out when Cody Fajardo decided to wing it. Favorably for Anaheim Servite High. Whether the quarterback deftly scrambled around defenders or slipped a tackle and heaved a pass downfield, he usually achieved the desired result. Fajardo guided the Friars to several narrow playoff victories on the way to becoming the first team in school history to play in the CIF state championship Division II bowl. Fajardo came up big in that game too, passing for one touchdown and running for another during Servite's 33-30 win over Rocklin.

Freshman guard Isaac Hamilton of Los Angeles Crenshaw turned in a basketball performance Monday in the Westchester tournament that 15-year-olds, let alone high school seniors, just don't do. He made six consecutive three-point shots in the third quarter and finished with 27 points in a 91-50 victory over Lake Balboa Birmingham. "I was just feeling it, and when I'm feeling it, I know I'm not going to miss," Hamilton said. The 6-foot-4 Hamilton had 17 points Saturday against Pasadena Blair in his high school debut.

Before she entered preschool, Nicole Hung's family had picked out her university. It would be Stanford, her father's alma mater. To get her ready, they took her to watch Stanford's Rose Bowl appearance against Wisconsin in 2000. And she saw Stanford star Casey Jacobsen's buzzer-beater against top-ranked Duke later that year at the Pete Newell Challenge. Hung, 17, a Harvard-Westlake senior, has certainly excelled in the classroom and on the court. She has a 4.2 grade-point average, plays the bassoon in the school symphony and her tennis game is strong enough to play on a Division I team, her coach says.

It seemed as if Bryce Jones of Woodland Hills Taft couldn't miss at USC's Galen Center on Friday night. His future college coach, USC's Kevin O'Neill, was sitting courtside, and if there weren't a few thousand people in the stands, O'Neill might have been willing to do a somersault to show his excitement. Whether shooting from outside or driving for layups and dunks, the 6-foot-5 Jones was magnificent in almost every aspect of his game in helping the No. 2-seeded Toreadors (24-3)

Deonte Burton scored 24 points and teammates Kevin Smith and Thomas Hammock each added 15 as host Compton Centennial upset defending champion Harvard-Westlake, 78-70, in a semifinal game of the Southern Section Division 3A boys' basketball playoffs Friday night at Lynwood High. The third-seeded Apaches (25-5) trailed, 39-34 at halftime and 56-52 after three quarters, but rallied to take a 65-63 lead on a layup by Kurt Davis with 3:18 remaining. Davis finished with 11 points and put the game out of reach when he rebounded a desperation three-pointer from the corner by Harvard-Westlake guard Austin Kelly and dribbled the length of the court for a dunk to put Centennial ahead, 76-68, with 15 seconds left.

Three-point fever was spreading in the gym at Los Angeles Washington, where the host Generals and Los Angeles Fairfax were engaged in a long-range shooting competition during a City Section Division I quarterfinal playoff game. Fairfax Coach Harvey Kitani liked what he saw early on, with his team making seven three-pointers in the first quarter. Washington players got caught up in the challenge and started launching their own flurry of threes, including five made by Stephen Dafney.

Aaron Crockett of Etiwanda was invisible for the first three quarters of Tuesday night's Southern Section Division 1AA quarterfinal playoff game against No. 3-seeded Corona Centennial. He had a mere two points. "They probably thought, 'Shoot, he can't score,' " the 6-foot-4 senior said. "I shot when I was open." Then came the fourth quarter. He contributed two offensive-rebound baskets, plus a 15-footer that glanced off the rim and somehow fell in, to ignite the Eagles to a 78-72 victory and earn them a semifinal berth against No. 2 Long Beach Poly on Friday.

Mike Christensen, who successfully rebuilt football programs at Lakewood and Carson, has been named coach at Los Angeles Loyola. He takes over a team that endured highs and lows last season after Jeff Kearin resigned as coach one month into the season. Christensen has long coveted the Loyola job. His son, Bryan, is a sophomore football player for the Cubs, and he has admired the school's academic and athletic philosophy. "From the start, I thought it was a great fit," he said.

Ask any youth or high school football player from South Los Angeles, "Who's Black Mamba?" and he'll know the answer. It's the nickname of De'Anthony Thomas from Los Angeles Crenshaw, the fastest, most recognizable teenage athlete to come out of the area in years. And now the rest of California is about to see what all the fuss is about because Crenshaw, the City Section Division I champion, was chosen Sunday to be in the prime-time televised CIF state championship Open Division bowl game Saturday night at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

There's a reason linebacker Jordan Zumwalt of Huntington Beach Edison has picked up scholarship offers from USC and UCLA in the last month. His reputation as a crushing tackler has become well known. It was a Zumwalt hit with 6:47 left Saturday night that knocked the ball loose from Lakewood's Terrance Woods, resulting in a fumble recovery and a turning point in the Chargers' 37-29 victory in a Pac-5 Division semifinal game at Orange Coast College. Lakewood had rallied from a 23-7 third-quarter deficit with touchdowns on an 80-yard kickoff return by Woods and an 18-yard touchdown reception by Justin Utupo, plus two two-point conversions.

When it comes to teaching basketball fundamentals to guards, Coach Leonard Johnson of Los Angeles Washington said, "That's my specialty." He was the City Section 3-A player of the year in 1978 at Los Angeles Fairfax, where he played point guard. And now, in his second year of coaching the Generals, he has two talented junior guards in Michaelyn Scott and Chris Brown, who have taken Washington (21-6) to within one victory of advancing to the City Division I semifinals for the first time since the early 1990s.