Professional basketball team to play at CLU
Los Angeles Lightning to hold first round of tryouts this weekend
By Eliav Appelbaum eliav@theacorn.com

Mark Harwell was nicknamed "White Lightning" at Prairie View A&M University.

Fittingly enough, Harwell now owns the Los Angeles Lightning, the newest franchise in the International Basketball League.

The first-year professional men's basketball team based in Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village will play its games at Cal Lutheran University's 1,500-seat Gilbert Sports Arena, and Harwell hopes to give the team the right amount of Hollywood flair.

"We have a lot of possibilities," said Harwell, who is also the team's general manager. "We're going to have a whole bunch of fun."

In one of his first basketballrelated decisions, Harwell announced this week the hiring of Ron Quarterman to coach the Lightning.

Quarterman coached in the American Basketball Association last season and has also been involved with club and prep basketball teams in the area.

"He's just a good guy," Harwell said of Quarterman. "I'm really big on instincts. On any team you have to find the right fit; he was certainly the right fit for us."

MAN IN CHARGE- Mark Harwell is the owner and general manager of the Los Angeles Lightning, a new franchise in the International Basketball League that will play its home games at Cal Lutheran.

Quarterman will get to handpick the team when the first weekend of two tryouts runs Saturday from 5-9 p.m. and Sunday from 1-5 p.m. at Gilbert Sports Arena.

Although it's an open tryout, there's a $200 fee to participate.

"We're looking for athleticism and scoring," said Quarterman, 54, who lives in West Hills.

"The league has an international flavor, and we're looking for guys who can get up and down and score."

Although Harwell is involved in the entertainment business, the Abilene, Texas, native knows that a good product on the hardwood will be essential to capturing the community's attention.

He has been involved in marketing for the World Basketball League, the Continental Basketball Association and the U.S. Basketball League.

Running the Lightning will be like producing an indie flick. It costs about $1 million to operate an IBL franchise for one season, or the equivalent of "doing a small film all year," Harwell said.

Last season, the 44-year-old Woodland Hills resident was in charge of franchise development for the Santa Barbara Breakers, a former IBL team that merged with another league.

The Breakers featured former NBA players such as Lakers Samaki Walker, Clippers Lamond Murray, Seattle SuperSonics Fred Vinson and Phoenix Suns and UCLA star Toby Bailey.

The Lightning is expected to announce the signing of a former NBA player soon, and Harwell said a professional player in Japan could also sign a contract once his visa is in order.

In a league where teams average 126 points per game, the IBL is to the NBA what the Arena Football League is to the NFL.

The IBL is similar to the NBA, but the league limits dead time by employing a 22-second shot clock and allowing teams only one timeout per quarter. The IBL is in its fourth year and has 18 teams, with professional teams in Canada and China.

Harwell will have America Idolesque entertainment between quarters and during timeouts, and the games can also be watched online.

"We're in L.A.," Harwell said. "We have to be cutting edge."

Yet Harwell knows the fans and the local community come first.

"The key to this, I think, is not the individual team or the individuals behind it, it's the community embracing it," Harwell said. "You have to be embraced by your local community. That's the biggest step.

"All you have to do is watch one game, and you're sold. I've been involved with basketball my whole life, and this time of entertaining game is so fast and so exciting and the players are so incredibly talented that I think it only takes one trip to the gym to see what we're about."

For more information on the Lightning, including season ticket packages, visit the website www.lalightning.net.