Sports
Sheiks Squads Make City Playoffs
Hollywood's boys and girls basketball and boys soccer teams qualify.
Way back in December, first-year Hollywood High boys' basketball coach T.C. Twardak talked about how cool it would be if his improving program had an opportunity to face one of the best teams in the City Section when the playoffs rolled around.
Well, the playoffs have arrived and Twardak got his wish. The Sheiks (11-5) won the Central League title on Friday and what is their reward? How about a shot at taking down Woodland Hills Taft (23-2), the No. 1 seed in Division I. A selection committee pieced together the City brackets for all divisions Saturday morning.
No. 16 Hollywood hasn't played an opponent anywhere near the caliber of Taft this season, but the Sheiks might employ the "us against the world" mentality to psyche themselves up for Thursday's trip to the San Fernando Valley.
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The underdog Sheiks have won four straight games since their tough loss at crosstown rival Bernstein. However, Taft is on an even bigger roll, having won 13 games in a row on its way to the West Valley League championship.
If Hollywood can shock the Toreadors it would travel to either No. 8 Cleveland (13-12) or No. 9 Fremont (20-9) for a quarterfinal matchup Feb. 22.
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Girls Basketball
Lou Herron's squad was awarded the No. 4 seed in Division III and the Sheiks can now go about taking care of "unfinished business." The Sheiks host No. 13 Locke (7-17), the sixth-place team from the Coliseum League, in the first round Friday at 7 p.m.
A victory would guarantee Hollywood a home game in the quarterfinals, where the Sheiks would play either No. 12 Manual Arts or No. 5 Garfield on Feb. 23.
Boys Soccer
After finishing second in the Central League the Sheiks were seeded No. 25 out of 32 teams in the City Large Schools playoffs. Hollywood (10-3-3) will travel to No. 8 Bell (11-4-8), the Eastern League runner-up, for Wednesday's first-round game. Kickoff is at 3 p.m.
If Jorge Maldonado's squad prevails it will travel to either No. 24 Venice (7-4-3) of the Western League or No. 9 Lincoln (10-2), the Northern League champion.
