sports/sports_4_18

Quintero Leaves Crossroads, And What About Young?

Monday, May 17 ---George Quintero has resigned as
coach of the girls basketball team at Crossroads School.

George Quintero

This is a major loss for the school but it also leads to another question. Will Crossroads also lose Courtney
Young, who is regarded as one of the Top 50 players in the
country among high school girls?

It's a fair question because the coach and star player worked well together. Young has two years remaining
and Quintero has been there for her, even taking an interest in Young's off-season play with an AAU team.

Last season, when Quintero was leading Crossroads to
the CIF championship game, I remarked to a mutual friend that the coach was doing an excellent job.

Yes, I was told, he is. But there are problems there over philosophy. He wants to do more with the overall program, including lower level teams, than the administration.

This week Quintero admitted that was the crux of the
problem.

''It isn't just the varsity,'' he said. ``We just didn't have enough kids to put together the kind of program I wanted. I was really worried that we wouldn't have a frosh-soph or a junior varsity squad.

``I want to see the whole program developing. It's very draining to know that you may not have a team.''

What could Crossroads have done for him? Well, the
school has stringent admission standards. I suppose he wanted the administration to make some exceptions and it wouldn't.

Soon after the high school season ended I asked Quintero about the varsity's possibilities for summer leagues. He said there were several summer leagues but it looked like Crossroads wouldn't be able to field a team.

In two Crossroads seasons Quintero's teams won 53
games and lost seven. And while neither he nor Athletic
Director Chuck Ice want to talk about it, I sense that
Quintero wanted more support than he received.

He told me he enjoyed road games because there were
more fans and more of a basketball environment.

Now, here's the other part of the story, the really
intriguing part. Santa Monica High is looking for a girls
basketball coach and Quintero admits he has an interest in
the job.

What a huge local story this would be if Quintero
shifted to Samohi and so did Courtney Young. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Quintero was formerly an assistant for the Samohi
boys basketball team for seven years. He was on the Cliff
Hunter's staff when Samohi won the CIF championship in 1987.

I doubt that any other Samohi candidate will have
more impressive credentials.