Mission Bay has not been a “brand” name in San Diego Section basketball, but the Buccaneers continue to hold sway in the Union-Tribune weekly poll. They’re now 15-3 after Tuesday night’s 71-63 victory over Patrick Henry.
The Bucs have beaten so-called brands No. 3 Foothills Christian and No. 8 St. Augustine and lost to No. 5 La Jolla Country Day.
It’s been that kind of year. A dominant team has not surfaced.
The West Hills Wolfpack don’t travel in the above circles, but Cam Barry, a 6-foot, 1-inch senior guard is developing his own brand. Barry is the state leader with a 36.6 scoring average through 10 reported games and ranks fifth in the country, according to Max Preps.
Foothills’ ballyhooed Taeshon Cherry is one of the San Diego Section leaders with a 20.6 average in 10 reported games. Max Preps did not have any stats for Mission Bay’s catalyst, Rejean (Boogie) Ellis, whom the school listed as 7-foot, 2-inch point guard, along with several other “seven-footers”.
Poll participants: John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Terry Monahan, freelancer; Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions; Adam Paul, Ramon Scott, EastCountySports.com; John Kentera, Prep Talent Evaluator; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com; Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9 FM; Christian Pedersen, S.D. Preps Insider; Aaron Burgin, Fulltime Hoops; Brad Enright, L.A. Court Report.
2017-18 Weeks 1-5: It’s Been a Wild Ride
Like the automobiles that are continually jarred by San Diego’s city streets, the supposed top teams in the San Diego Section negotiated a December full of potholes.
Which is the best, as the season enters league play and the weekend shootouts or the so-called”classics”?
I cast my vote for Torrey Pines, followed by Mission Bay, Foothills Christian, St. Augustine, La Jolla Country Day, Vista, Mater Dei, Montgomery, Santa Fe Christian, and San Marcos.
Don’t press me. I can’t explain why.
There were so many surprising results, some stunning. Perhaps it was the grind of the four-day Torrey Pines Holiday Tournament, one of the country’s premier events, or coaches just trying to find the right combinations and still evaluating personnel.
–But Torrey, 10-0 and an early championship favorite, fell behind by 15 points and was beaten in the Falcons’ annual Holiday Classic, 69-68, by St. Augustine, despite the Saints featuring an all-underclass lineup and missing two expected starters who transferred.
–St. Augustine followed its inspired win over Torrey Pines with a 78-52 loss to state-ranked Los Angeles Fairfax, which was beaten by Foothills Christian.
–Mission Bay beat Foothills Christian, 72-56, but lost to La Jolla Country Day, 62-50.
–Foothills Christian not only lost to Mission Bay, but also to 7-7 Westview, 73-71, in overtime and then beat two Los Angeles City Section powers, Westchester, 73-49, and Fairfax, 74-73.
Mission Bay (12-3) is Cal-Hi Sports‘ No. 12 team in the state and Foothills is 14th. Torrey Pines surprisingly was not even at least on the newsletter’s “bubble” .
Union-Tribune Boys’ poll through Tuesday, Jan. 2:
Rank
Team
Record
Points
Last Poll
1
Mission Bay (6)
12-3
109
3
2
Torrey Pines (4)
13-2
100
1
3
Foothills Christian (1)
9-5
95
4
4
St. Augustine (1)
7-2
88
5
5
Vista
10-5
78
2
6
San Marcos
12-2
60
7
7
La Jolla Country Day
11-4
49
8
8
Mater Dei
11-5
46
6
9
Montgomery
11-3
14
NR
10
Canyon Crest
9-5
8
NR
NR–Not rated.
Others receiving votes: Poway (9-5, 5 points), Rancho Bernardo (6-4, 4), Santa Fe Christian (8-5, 3), Mount Miguel (14-2, 2), Helix (8-6, 1), Westview (8-7, 1).
Poll participants: John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune; Terry Monahan, freelancer; Steve Brand, San Diego Hall of Champions; Adam Paul, Ramon Scott, EastCountySports.com; John Kentera, Prep Talent Evaluator; Rick Smith, partletonsports.com; Bodie DeSilva, sandiegopreps.com; Steve (Biff) Dolan, Mountain Country 107.9 FM; Christian Pedersen, S.D. Preps Insider; Aaron Burgin, Fulltime Hoops; Brad Enright, L.A. Court Report.
A nagging, Week 2 loss to Lancaster Paraclete that Helix appeared to overcome reared up again after the Highlanders were beaten by Folsom, 49-42, in the state 1-AA championship.
Helix, seventh in the state going into the game as selected by Cal-Hi Sports, dropped to a final ranking of 10th. Helix might have finished eighth or ninth, but the loss to Folsom, combined with Harbor City Narbonne’s stunning, 50-13 win over Paraclete, sealed the Highlanders at 10th. Narbonne was ninth and Long Beach Poly eighth.
Mission Hills is 12th in Cal-Hi’s final rating and Torrey Pines, which came close in Avocado League battles with Mission Hills, crashed the top 50 at 49th. San Marcos was 54th and Ramona and Steele Canyon earned honorable mention.
HIGH SCORER IN DESERT
Tyler Saikhon of El Centro Southwest led all San Diego Section scorers with 234 points after finishing second in 2016 with 188.
Saikhon is the third Valley runner to outscore all others, joining Brawley’s Zay Shepard, who had 192 points in 2003 and 276 in ’04, and Imperial’s Royce Freeman, whose three-peat probably never will be surpassed.
Freeman had 240 in 2011, 216 in ’12, and 258 in ’13 before embarking on a collegiate career at Oregon that will likely conclude with his selection in the 2018 NFL draft.
Scoring totals are not always accurate or are incomplete, because they often are impossible to find in newspapers or are unreported. Max Preps, from which the below totals come, tries to keep score.
Name
Team
Gms
TD
PAT
2PAT
FG
Pts
Tyler Saikhon
El Centro Southwest
14
38
0
3
0
234
Dorian Richardson
Rancho Buena Vista
12
26
0
0
0
156
Kenyon Sims
Lincoln
12
24
0
4
0
152
Daniel Esguerra
Calvin Christian 8
11
15
47
4
3
151
Jacob Siegfried
Granite Hills
13
25
0
0
0
150
Mozes Mooney
The Bishop’s
10
22
0
8
0
148
Casey Granfors
University City
11
22
0
0
0
132
Marcel Patterson
University City
11
22
0
0
0
132
Shevell Sterling
Grossmont
11
21
0
0
0
126
Juan Pablo Ruiz
Calexico Vincent Memorial
14
21
0
0
0
126
Devon Jones
Kearny
12
20
0
1
0
122
Michael Moreno
Brawley
10
20
0
0
0
120
Deandre Daniels
St. Augustine
9
20
0
0
0
120
Ty Jones
Salton City West Shores
8
19
0
1
0
118
Branton Bell
Kearny
12
18
0
4
0
116
2017 Week 17: Cougars Were Steeled in Stretch Run.
Steele Canyon’s winning the State Division 3-A championships was comparative to an NFL team sneaking into the playoffs as a wild card and taking home the Super Bowl trophy.
The Cougars of Coach Scott Longerbone were 4-4 at midseason, got into the San Diego Section playoffs as a No. 7 seed, won 4 games in San Diego, and went on to the state championship with a 44-42 victory over Central Coast champion Half Moon Bay, which had won 14 in a row.
Steele Canyon (12-4) tied La Jolla Country Day’s 2016 state finalist and several others for the most games played by a California high school.
Sixteen games! It’s what they play in the big league.
San Diego Section teams won 2 of 5 state finals in 2016 and 1 of 5 this year. But the section was more competitive this season, no blowout losses compared to 2016, when The Bishop’s was beaten by Oakdale, 47-0, and Horizon was taken down by Strathmore, 62-22.
The most decisive score differential in 2017 was Calexico Vincent Memorial’s 38-20 loss to San Francisco Galileo.
The most recent CIF state format was adapted in 2015. San Diego Section teams are 5-8 in that period and 9-13 since state playoffs were reinstated in 2007.
The Los Angeles Rams’ Jared Goff is one of the hottest quarterbacks in the NFL but five years ago, Goff’s Marin Catholic team from the North Coast Section was a 38-35 loser to Madison in the state D-IV championship…San Francisco Galileo, conqueror of Calexico Vincent Memorial in VI-A, is the alma-mater of many Italian-American baseball players of generations past and of prominent people in business and the arts but probably is best known as the school from which O.J. Simpson graduated and the school that baseball immortal Joe DiMaggio did not attend…DiMaggio never went to high school…San Diego State came hard at the last minute and received a commitment from Helix quarterback Carson Baker, who originally had chosen California-Davis….Baker completed 19 of 31 passes for three touchdowns and ran for another as Helix battled Folsom before losing, 49-42…Highlanders sophomore Elejon Noa rushed for 1,013 yards in five playoff games…Galileo scored touchdowns on three of its first five snaps in the third quarter after trailing, 14-8, at halftime…Cameron Junger passed for five touchdowns and rallied El Centro Southwest from a 34-14 deficit early in the third quarter but Milpitas scored the winning touchdown with 2:37 remaining in the game…Steele Canyon withstood a Half Moon Bay rally after the school on Highway 94 led, 34-15, in the third quarter…the championship was a breakthrough for Coach Scott Longerbone’s program…the Cougars had not moved beyond the San Diego Section semifinals in seven previous tries….
2017: Hamamoto, Hauser, Jackson Jump 3 Places
Three coaches each moved up three spots in the annual review of those with at least 100 victories in their careers in this area or in the San Diego Section.
Monte Vista’s Ron Hamamoto now has 218 victories and is fifth all-time behind Herb Meyer (339), John Carroll (248), Bennie Edens (239) and John Shacklett (229).
Hamamoto started the season eighth. Mission Hills’ Chris Hauser, with 154 victories, climbed from 19th to 16th and Madison’s Rick Jackson, with 128 wins, moved from 32nd to 29th.
Jackson, whose overall record is 128-39-1, has the best active won-loss percentage, .765, and will enter the 2018 season as the Section all-time leader among coaches of least 100 victories.
Carroll is second in won-loss percentage at .763. Kearny’s Birt Slater next at .753, followed by Chula Vista’s George Ohnessorgen (.745), and Eastlake’s John McFadden (.735).
Several mentors, if they return next year, are not so far from 100 that they couldn’t make the jump in one season.
Olympian’s Paul Van Nostrand has 94 victories, Grossmont’s Tom Karlo, 91, Ramona’s Damon Baldwin, 90, and St. Augustine’s Richard Sanchez, 89.
Chula Vista’s Chet DeVore, who coached from 1951-55, was 44-7-1 and has the highest percentage (.856) among coaches of at least 50 games. San Diego’s Duane Maley, 1947-59, was 97-19.3 (.828). Hobbs Adams of San Diego, 1929-34, was 41-11-2 (.772), and Amos Schaefer of Coronado, 1926-35, was 55-25-5 (.676).
John Perry was 53-15-5 (.760) from 1920-27 at San Diego and 40-34-6 (.538) from 1930-39 at Hoover for an overall 93-49-11 (.644).
Mira Mesa will have its third coach in the school’s 41-year history. Gary Blevins (145-117-4, .552) announced his retirement. Blevins succeeded Brad Griffith, who started the program in 1977 and was 112-82-3, .576 when he retired after the 1994 season.
For a complete list of 100-game winners, go to the “Football” menu on the home page and drag to “Coach 100 Club”.
–A rare playoff run by San Diego teams in the Southern California playoffs.
–San Diego High marched through four rounds to win its only CIF Southern Section championship, along the way setting a school single-game scoring record…maybe.
–Hoover blitzed Class B opponents in an attempted sequel to championships in 1931-32, 1933-34, and 1934-35, but there was no championship hardware and no satisfaction.
FAST START
San Diego entered the season with four lettermen starters, Ernie Mallory, Melvin Hendry, Vance Randolph, and Lowell Lee, and picked up a fifth, Bill Patterson, who transferred in from Frankford, Indiana.
Alhambra and Long Beach Poly were favored to fight it out for Coast League laurels. The Hilltoppers were 6-8 overall the previous year, 3-7 in league play, and 0-4 against the Moors and Jackrabbits.
San Diego showed early that it was vastly improved, sweeping Class A (a more preferred nomenclature than “varsity”) competition on the Hilltoppers’ home floor in the 13th annual San Diego County Interscholastic Tournament that opened the season in December.
With Mallory leading, Coach Mike Morrow’s squad whipped through Grossmont, 48-13, Point Loma, 36-14, and Ramona, 54-15.
Alhambra was the visitor in the league opener and went home a stunned, 31-28 loser after trailing, 15-9, at halftime. Mallory led the winners with 13 points.
The San Diego-Alhambra contest was played on a Friday afternoon at 3:30 instead of at the usual 7:30 p.m. because the Moors didn’t want to be headed home late at night on the Coast Highway with the threat of fog.
Travel and its various inconveniences always were a nemesis for the far-flung Coast League squads.
The 1935-36 Southern California champions pose in front of the City Stadium peristyle, front row (from left): Ernie Mallory, Paul Shea, Roy Cleator, Vance Randolph, Billy Cesena. Middle row, from left: Coach Dewey (Mike) Morrow, Roy Rollins, Judson Starr, Melvin Hendry, Lowell Lee. Top row, from left: Bill Patterson, Bob Barth, Homer Peabody, manager Erickson. Missing, Eddie Preisler, Herman Gatewood.
COAST IS CLEAR
The visiting Hilltoppers led Long Beach Poly, 18-17, at the end of three quarters in their next game but couldn’t hold on and dropped a 21-19 decision. It was the Jackrabbits’ 17th victory in the 19 games between the teams since they first met in the 1920-21 season but also San Diego’s last loss in the 15-1 season.
A 40-18 victory at Santa Ana was followed by a 29-23 win at Alhambra, setting up another big game with Poly at San Diego. The Hillers prevailed, 29-25, as Vance Randolph, who would be lost to the team at midterm graduation, scored 11 points.
Randolph and acting captain Eddie Preisler were scheduled to participate in cap and gown ceremonies but opted to stay with the team and make their final appearances at Santa Ana. A 37-29 victory over the Saints clinched the Hilltoppers’ first outright league championship. They had tied for first with Poly in 1932-33.
With time before the beginning of the playoffs, the Hillers took on the touring Knapps Grocery Stores squad from Oakland. The 51-25 rout was part of a doubleheader in which Coach Ed Ruffa’s B team, playing an independent schedule, defeated the Markel-Johnson Poultry House, 31-28.
BEERKLE LOOKING FOR EDGE?
Point Loma, 7-0 and Metropolitan League champion after a 24-16 victory over 6-1 Escondido, was the Hillers’ first playoff opponent.
The Pointers did not have a gymnasium (one newspaper reported the Pointers defeated their alumni, 38-28, “on an outdoor court made soggy by the rains”) and even used the Hillers’ gym in preparation for the game.
San Diego’s Roy Cleator unsuccessfully attempted to block shot of Point Loma’s Joaquin Qualin, while Hillers’ Lowell Lee (13) and Vance Randolph (16) look on, with Pointers’ Moxon Mixon (40).
Pointers coach Joe Beerkle also bemoaned the fact that he had players who were “on call” to the tuna industry.
Beerkle said that if a fishing vessel came in, starters Gil Gonsalves and Joaquin Qualin would have to forego the playoff encounter and help off-load the boat.
There apparently were no arrivals at the Embarcadero, but the Pointers still were outmanned and lost, 32-18. San Diego the next night took on barnstorming Phoenix Union and beat the Coyotes, 45-35.
WHAT’S THE SCORE?
Morrow’s club met visiting Huntington Beach in the quarterfinals and scored a 73-45 victory. Or was it 82-45?
The San Diego Union noted the upcoming game early in the week but then ignored the usual day-of-game advance and did not report on the Saturday night contest.
The rival Evening Tribune printed a very short Monday afternoon story that San Diego had won, 73-45. That score also was corroborated by Don King’s Caver Conquest, with attribution to The Russ, San Diego High’s newspaper.
Ernie Mallory’s 18 points represented the only individual total in the Tribune.
The account seemed all well and good until the Los Angeles Times’ result showed a Huntington Beach dateline and a different score.
The unbeaten Hoover Cardinals Class B squad. Kneeling, from left: Don DeLauer, Gene McNeal, Milky Phelps. Tommy Johnson, Moore. Standing, from left: Coach Bruce Maxwell, Bob White, Yapp, Dick Mitchell, Monseca, Shepard, manager Kahan.
The Times’ story presented an editorial slant toward the losing team and essentially was a wrap on the Oilers’ Orange League championship season, but the text was accompanied by a comprehensive box score, which showed that San Diego exploded for 53 points in the second half and won, 82-45.
Mallory was credited with 18 points, followed by 15 each from Bill Patterson and Melvin Hendry, 2 by Lowell Lee, and 9 by the fifth starter Roy Cleator. Substitutes included Billy Cesena (2), Herman Gatewood (6), Mike Shea (4), and Bob Barth (2).
A player named “Peder” also was credited with 9 points, but there was no record of such human, but there was a Homer “Peabody” on the squad.
CIF Southern Section playoff results for the season also honored the 82-45 score.
The Times’ box score still begged the question. Why no definitive story and complete box score in the San Diego publications?
We’ll have to go with the locals’ 73-45 count until hearing otherwise and with their subsequent 34-32 win over Santa Barbara and 47-35 championship game victory over Bonita. Semifinals and finals were played at La Verne College.
RARE OUTBURST
What makes the San Diego-Huntington Beach score enticing is that San Diego’s point total, 73 or 82, was 40 to 50 points above normal for the era. Basketball was a slow-moving, low-scoring, and slowly evolving game offensively, although San Diego somehow scored 76 points in the 1916-17 season against Escondido, which scored 23.
If 82 was correct in San Diego’s progression of high-point totals, the 80 against Grossmont in 1952-53 would be invalid. The issue became moot in 1957-58, when San Diego outscored La Jolla, 86-40.
RIVALRY ON HIATUS
“Though coaches and principals of both schools are anxious for the series to continue, it now appears that students of San Diego and Hoover Highs will be without their annual Hilltop-Cardinal cage titanic, yearly the high spot of the basketball programs of the rival city schools.” That was the lede (first paragraph) on an article in The San Diego Union on Jan. 15, 1936.
Hoover had become a member of the Bay League and played league games on Friday. San Diego played Coast League games on Tuesdays and Fridays. Coaches Mike Morrow of San Diego and Bruce Maxwell of Hoover looked for loopholes in their schedules.
The series could be played on Wednesday or Thursday, but this would have put Morrow’s players at the disadvantage of two league and one bragging rights game in one week.
The Cardinals and Hillers, who first played in 1933-34, would resume their rivalry in 1936-37 and played at least once a season until 1976-77.
SWARM OF BEES
Hoover’s powerful Class B team, won the County tournament by defeating Grossmont, 37-4, San Diego, 30-26, and Sweetwater, 37-7, and, led by future San Diego State legend Milton (Milky) Phelps, left their new Bay League rivals reeling.
The Cardinals won league games by scores of 61-24, 49-7, 43-25, 59-27, and 51-14. Santa Monica came closest but still was a well-beaten 35-19. The Cardinals rolled in the playoffs, running Carpinteria off the court, 60-12, and swarming San Luis Obispo, 66-30.
The B playoff semifinals and final rounds were at El Monte High.
Hoover’s opponent in the finals was well regarded South Pasadena, a 32-31 winner over El Monte and the team the Cardinals defeated at San Diego State, 36-22, in the 1934-35 championship.
The venue essentially represented a home game for the Tigers. The distance of about 14 ½ miles from South Pas to El Monte was in contrast to the 120 miles that Hoover had traveled to get to the final four site.
Ernie Mallory (top) and Bill Patterson propelled Hilltoppers’ attack.
OH, OH!
The dispatch from El Monte following the semifinals was curious: “Some doubt remains as to where the final game will be played, although Coach Bruce Maxwell has been advised to report to the El Monte gym here tomorrow afternoon with his Hoover team for the finale.”
Maxwell and his team arrived on time and the team was on the court and waited more than an hour, but South Pasadena didn’t show, announcing that it would play only on its home court, apparently because the Tigers were the visiting team at Hoover in the 1934-35 title game.
No forfeit.
The CIF bulletin of April, 1936, announced that the executive committee unanimously voted that no champion be declared since “a disagreement had developed over the place of playing the final game in Class B basketball.”
The committee also passed a resolution ending existing playoff arrangements in Classes B, C, and D and allowing league champions to host at least one interleague championship game.
HILLTOP BEES ALSO STUNG
Competing as an independent team and holding wins over Long Beach Poly and Santa Ana, Coach Ed Ruffa’s San Diego High B team was rebuffed in its attempt to gain a playoff berth.
CIF boss Seth Van Patten suggested that the Hillers’ B squad take on Hoover’s super team in a best, two-of-three series, with the winners being admitted to the postseason. Since Hoover already had won its league and was in the playoffs, the idea died a quiet death.
FAVORED FLOOR
The San Diego High gymnasium, when not used for practice by the Hilltoppers’ teams, was in use virtually every day of the week.
Point Loma and Sweetwater moved their Metropolitan League opener up one day in order to play on the San Diego court. The teams didn’t want to use Sweetwater’s outdoor court.
San Diego’s playoff with Point Loma was rescheduled for the afternoon. Hoover had requested the San Diego gym for that night.
Metropolitan League teams came from long distances to play games at San Diego High. Army-Navy, Coronado, and Escondido were the only other schools to have gyms. Oceanside’s building was almost complete.
SET SHOTS
Ernie Mallory, one of the top players of the first half-century in the County, and Vance Randolph of San Diego were on the all-Southern California first team…a second-team guard was Pasadena Muir Technical’s Jackie Robinson…Point Loma coach Joe Beerkle, short of players, moved varsity standout Joaquin Qualin to Class B and Qualin scored 12 points in a 40-12 win over Army-Navy…Ramona won the Southern Prep League championship by defeating runner-up Julian, 43-8…Hoover fielded five teams, Varsity, Class B and C, junior varsity and junior varsity B…Hoover’s Class C squad nosed out Memorial Junior High,15-13…after players had dressed and departed for home it was discovered that Memorial had scored an additional two points…the teams agreed to play another game the next week…Dickie Tazlaar scored 16 as Hoover prevailed, 30-24….
