The Preps / Scott Howard-Cooper : Jefferson Has New Image and a Winning Record

The Jefferson High School basketball team leaves today for the Las Vegas Holiday Tournament and will meet highly rated Oak Hill Academy of Mouth of Wilson, Va., later that night with a 5-2 record. Could it be that some of the early season success is because of a woman?

If not, Verda Talton’s work certainly hasn’t hurt.

“It’s been very positive,” Jefferson Coach Wendell Greer said. “I can’t tell you how much her work has meant to the kids.”

While Greer has worked with the Democrats on the court, Talton, his fiance, has helped them off. At least their image.

As president of Trilateral Communications, a public relations firm, she has been working this season to improve the normally poor image of the inner-city school. Several other coaches have complained about a bad rap overshadowing positive happenings at their schools, but Greer, who has also been helped by Athletic Director Al Johnson and assistant principal Eta Seamster on that front, is one of the first to do something about it.

Her work so far has included sending out press releases and letters to local businesses to help the team raise $4,500 for trips to Bakersfield and Las Vegas for tournaments, having the players give anti-drug speeches to community groups, beginning an adopt-a-player program between former and current team members and bringing representatives from Athletes in Action to Jefferson to speak.

Seeing is believing: Before the game, Jim Woodard, basketball coach at Woodland Hills Taft, stood to the side during warm-ups and surveyed the Toreadors’ much-ballyhooed opponent, Fairfax.

“I’ve seen every City champion since 1955, and they are the best City team I’ve seen,” he told Johannes Tesselaar of the Daily News. “Or, I should say, the most talented, since they haven’t won anything yet.”

Later that day, after Sean Higgins (32) and Chris Mills (30) drilled Taft for 62 points in a 104-66 win, Woodard thought otherwise.

“That’s the best team I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Unwanted surprise: UCLA Coach Terry Donahue showed up at Citrus College to watch Newhall Hart quarterback Jim Bonds during the Indians’ Northwestern Conference championship game against Temple City.

“I wasn’t ready for it,” Hart Coach Rick Scott told The Times’ John Lynch afterward. “We worked really hard to get the kids to concentrate, and whether it’s Terry Donahue, Heather Locklear or Farah Fawcett, if it’s somebody they know, it’s a distraction.

“I can see a high school quarterback being affected when he found out that the coach of the local college was on the sideline. I think there’s a way to go about recruiting. And when he calls again, I’m going to let him know I didn’t appreciate it.”

Prep Notes California placed five people on the 100-player Bally All-American football team: Running backs George Hemingway of Colton and Tommy Booker of Vista, linemen Tyrone Rodgers of Wilmington Banning and Scott Spalding of El Toro and linebacker-wide receiver Junior Seau of Oceanside. ESPN will air a 30-minute show on the team Saturday at 6 p.m.

Two days after he quarterbacked El Toro to the Southern Conference football title, Bret Johnson joined the basketball team. Last Monday, his first time on the court with the Chargers, he scored 20 against Costa Mesa. The next night, still without a day of practice, he hit 10 of 12 shots from the field and finished with 27 against University High of Irvine. No doubt a payoff from hard work during the summer months, when he played one-on-one with former Glendale Hoover shooting star Joe Hillman, now at Indiana. . . . The El Toro football team, by the way, has been named the state team of the year by Cal-Hi Sports. Encino Crespi, Concord De La Salle, Carson and Pasadena Muir were also considered. The publication put Crespi No. 1 in its 4-A Division; El Toro, Newhall Hart, Temple City, Santa Ana and Hacienda Heights Los Altos Nos. 1-5 in the 3-A; and Cerritos Valley Christian No. 1 in the 1-A.