Prep basketball: Anchorage aweigh

Barry Faulkner

NEWPORT BEACH - Newport Harbor High boys basketball will add

warm-weather gear to its team attire next season, after finalizing plans

to compete in a 16-team tournament Jan. 2-5 in Anchorage, Alaska.

Newport Harbor Coach Larry Hirst, who has taken previous teams to

Newport, R.I., Seattle and Carson City, Nev. said he had nogrand travel

plans for the 2001-02 season, until being contacted by a tournament

organizer from the home of college basketball’s Great Alaska Shootout.

“The same guy who organizes the college tournament runs a high school

tournament each year,” Hirst said. “One of our players has a relative in

Alaska and, somehow, they heard about our willingness to travel. They

contacted me and we decided it was an opportunity we couldn’t pass up. We

normally like to have about 18 months to plan for these trips, but we

wanted to take this opportunity. We’ve committed to doing whatever it

takes to make this possible.”

Hirst said fund-raising efforts have intensified to cover the cost of

air fare, as well as the aforementioned wardrobe needs.

“We’re planning to buy some warm-weather gear,” Hirst said, “because

your typical Newport kid’s idea of dressing warm is wearing a sweatshirt

with his shorts and thongs.”

Hirst said in addition to competing on the court, against a field

including a team from Texas with a returning player who scored 100 points

in a game last season, the Sailors will hope to savor their experience in

the Great White North.

“We’re scheduled to go mushing one day and we’ll take a tour of a gold

mine another day. Our kids have been to Big Bear, where it’s nice to play

in the snow for a day or two. But this will be a whole new realm of snow

and cold.”

Hirst said the tournament will also include teams from Washington,

Idaho and Alaska.

Senior point guard Greg Perrine, a two-year letterman and All-Sea View

League performer who tore an anterior cruciate ligament the final week of

the summer schedule, is also scheduled to make the trip to Alaska.

Hirst, however, said Perrine, who underwent successful reconstructive

surgery July 31, will miss the entire season, barring a rehabilitation

miracle.

“I’ve ruled out the possibility of him returning this season,” Hirst

said. “The doctors say the recovery is between four to six months, but we

won’t rush him back even a week early. That time frame could have him

ready for the final week or two of the season, but those two weeks aren’t

worth risking four years of his college future.”

Perrine was averaging around 19 points, seven assists and four steals

per game during the summer, before being injured, said Hirst, who

believes his fallen floor leader will still land a scholarship offer from

a four-year school.

One successful Newport Harbor basketball fund-raiser has been the

George Yardley Summer Cage Classic. Hirst said the July event, which has

featured a 32-team field the last two seasons, could be expanded next

year.

This prospective expansion would bolster the field to 48 schools,

which would be broken down into two divisions. The stronger programs,

such as this year’s tournament finalists, Mater Dei and Villa Park, will

compete in one division, while schools lacking perennially strong

programs would be allowed to compete more effectively against one another

in a second division.