Awards Ceremony, Parade to Honor Legion Champions

A parade and awards ceremony honoring the Woodland Hills West baseball team, winner of the American Legion World Series last Sunday in Millington, Tenn., will be held today starting at 8 a.m. at the Fallbrook Square mall in Canoga Park.

After the parade, Canoga Park-based KWNK-AM (670) will broadcast the awards ceremony live, according to station sports director Randy Kerdoon, who helped organize the event.

“We had a couple of (Woodland Hills) players on our breakfast-club show Wednesday morning,” Kerdoon said, “and they saw in the paper that people in San Pedro had held a parade for their Little League team, and that team only finished fourth in the World Series.

“We all kind of thought, ‘Why didn’t anybody do something for these guys, since they won it all?’ ”

The parade will proceed north on Fallbrook Avenue, turn east on Vanowen Street and conclude at Shadow Ranch Park, where an awards ceremony will be held at 8:30.

Kerdoon said that the team, which is composed mainly of current and former players from El Camino Real High, will be presented with plaques and a proclamation.

West is the first California team to win the series since 1976 and the first from District 20. West defeated Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, 11-5, in the championship game.