Roosevelt High School

Seven years ago, Ward Serrill was introduced to Bill Resler, a warm and garrulous professor of tax law at the University of Washington who was about to begin his first year as head coach for the girls' varsity basketball team at Seattle's Roosevelt High School. He immediately saw cinematic potential. Resler had some unusual ideas about coaching, which he was about to put into practice for the first time.

When Nancy Meza arrived at Roosevelt High School, she quickly made 30 friends among her classmates at the sprawling Boyle Heights campus. On Thursday, as her senior class gathered for its final photo, only four of those friends showed up. Most of the missing had dropped out. "It really struck me today," said Nancy, 17. "All of my friends are gone."

Ask All-City baseball players Edgar Sedano and Andy Flores what position they play and their response is the same: "I'm an infielder." Except pitching is their forte this season for Los Angeles Roosevelt (26-3), and they refuse to admit it because they remain proud hitters. Sedano is Roosevelt's version of a dominating closer. He hasn't given up an earned run in 48 innings. Teams have managed only 16 hits off of him. And yet, with an 0.00 earned-run average, he's still more impressed with his .

The last time Carlos Montes helped organize antiwar demonstrations, 30,000 people took to the streets in a series of historic rallies in East Los Angeles that became known as the Chicano Moratorium condemning the Vietnam War. And it is that spirit of protest from 30 years ago that Montes said he plans to tap into with today's march against a possible war with Iraq.

He was never absent or tardy. He was always in his seat with pencil and notebook ready when the class bell rang. Not once in the ninth, 10th, 11th and 12th grades did he fall asleep during a dry history lecture or shoot a spit wad during a lull in math class. As perfect as Armando Herman sounds, he won't be stepping forward with the 650 others who have finished their four years at Garfield High School when diplomas are handed out tonight.

Roosevelt High School Principal Henry Ronquillo had toyed with the idea of retiring for years. His family life tugged at him--and so did the fairways. But Roosevelt had its own gravity. A school like Roosevelt--long a port of entry for successive waves of immigrants--needs more than a principal. It needs a face. For 18 years, Ronquillo was that--a spokesman, an advocate, the unofficial "mayor of Boyle Heights," as some called him.

Cheryl Smith has spent 18 frustrating years teaching English to students who sometimes can barely read. So she hopes the upcoming reorganization of Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights will improve literacy for the school's 5,000 students. "I'm extremely happy," she said.

An auditor sent by the state to struggling Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights is the brother-in-law of the principal, a discovery that has caused teachers to fear their complaints about the principal will get back to him. As part of a team charged with figuring out how to improve Roosevelt, Al Castillo, the principal of La Puente High School, spent five days earlier this month on the campus, visiting classrooms and interviewing teachers.

As word spread Friday about the passage of a closely watched bill to make college more accessible for undocumented immigrants, reaction ranged from jubilation among some students and educators to anger from an anti-illegal-immigration group. The new law, which will allow some illegal immigrants to pay the same tuition at state colleges as in-state students, is expected to have a small effect on colleges across California.

When the three Boyle Heights boys walked the stage in their caps and gowns in June, they'd kept their end of the bargain: graduating from Roosevelt High School without joining a gang. But the priest in the audience, who four years ago promised them a vacation to Hawaii if they succeeded, didn't know how he would pay up. Now he knows.