Shortly after capturing the CIF-Los Angeles City Section Division II championship with a 64-52 win over Marine League rival Carson on March 3 at the Roybal Learning Center in Downtown Los Angeles, the returning players of the Panthers quickly started to prepare for the 2017-18 season by playing in Spring and Summer Leagues.
According to head coach Ernie Carr, Gardena played 20 of its games in the Artesia League in Lakewood where it currently sports a 14-6 record.
Shortly after capturing the CIF-Los Angeles City Section Division II championship with a 64-52 win over Marine League rival Carson on March 3 at the Roybal Learning Center in Downtown Los Angeles, the returning players of the Panthers quickly started to prepare for the 2017-18 season by playing in Spring and Summer Leagues.
According to head coach Ernie Carr, Gardena played 20 of its games in the Artesia League in Lakewood where it currently sports a 14-6 record.
Over the past three months, Gardena also played in the Watts Summer Games, along with tournaments and league games at West L.A. College, Washington High and the L.A. City Coaches Classic. Gardena had a 2-2 record in the L.A. City Coaches Tournament that included a narrow 45-42 loss to City and Southern California power Fairfax last Saturday.
In the always large and prestigious Watts Games, the Panthers reached the final where they fell to Hawkins High from the L.A. Crenshaw District and that was due to Gardena having just six players present.
The Panthers have two wins over always tough Crenshaw, last year’s L.A. City Division I champion. They also lost to the Cougars once.
In the 2016-17 season, Gardena won the title with a mostly young team and the Panthers return several players including three regular starters. Top players for the upcoming season include Deandre Brown, Michael Frankling, Ramon Sanford and David Heard.
“We played a lot of players most of the time,” Carr said of his squad from last season.
Left for Gardena in summer play is just two more games in the Artesia League. After playing two games on Monday and Wednesday of this week, the Panthers finish off the summer with two more games next Monday and Wednesday.
Next season will see Gardena moving up to Division I but if the Panthers excel enough in the Marine League, non-league and tournaments, they could play in the prestigious City Open Division with the likes of powers Fairfax, Westchester, Birmingham and Marine League foe Narbonne, if it goes as predicted.
By Joe Snyder
Sports Editor
