CIF-SS Large Enrollment Division
Preview:
Marmonte League 2001-02--(Nov. 4, 2001)
| MARMONTE LEAGUE Agoura Moorpark Newbury Park Royal Simi Valley Thousand Oaks Westlake |
The Marmonte League is always one of, if not the, most competitive leagues in the Ventura County region, and it's close enough to the San Fernando Valley that it attracts the attention of the media in the region (e.g., LA Times, Ventura County Star, and the LA Daily News), and it has produced its fair share of college players, and even a few pros. In recent years there has been the group from Simi (Branduinn Fullove, USCB, Rafael Berumen, New Mexico and LACC and now Miami; Dustin Villepigue at Gonzaga, Brett Michel at Azusa Pacific, and of course, in what will seem like ancient history, Don MacLean, UCLA and the NBA), to Westlake (Dan Bobik, BYU) and others. Top teams usually are Simi Valley, Newbury Park, and Westlake, but last year saw a sort of reordering from top to bottom, and that same trend is likely to continue again unless there are some real surprises and guys show up who we just haven't heard about. Thousand Oaks, the league champs, made it all the way to the semifinals of the Division I-AA playoffs, beating Hart, Camarillo, Cajon and eventually losing to El Toro (which lost in the finals to Glendora). Westlake made it to the second round of the II-AA playoffs, eventually losing to Chaparral, (which later fell to Dominguez in the next round). Agoura, which had a great run through the season, lost in the first round of playoffs (II-AA) to Pasadena. Newbury Park made it to the II-A playoffs as an at large team and lost in the first round to Dos Pueblos. Moorpark was an at-large selection in II-AA and also lost in the first round to Paso Robles. Only perennial last-place Royal missed out on the playoffs, and we're sure they'd love to break that cycle of post-season no-shows.
What follows is what we know about the teams thus far this season, which means we're looking at old rosters and trying to predict who will be returning and which younger players will be stepping up. The schedules are accurate as far as we know. We encourage coaches to send us their official rosters (via e-mail, not on the message board, please) and any other information about their teams so we can update the previews and rosters as the season progresses.
| Marmonte League Rosters | Marmonte League Schedules |
| Thousand
Oaks--10-2, 20-5 (1st) "Lancers" Thousand Oaks returns just about everyone, but the big question is whether Ben Olson, the nation's No. 1 quarterback prospect who just committed to BYU over UCLA, will play any basketball. The team graduated 5 seniors from last season's roster, but returns a number of players who will help, including David Anderson, an excellent guard. Here's who we anticipate will return: Amusla Kalbasi 6'-2" Sr. F Whether this will be enough to repeat as league champs is anyone's guess right now, particularly since some of the other schools in the league will also be completely rebuilding. |
Thousand Oaks Coach: Rich Endres D 06 @ Dos Pueblos |
| Agoura-- 9-3, 20-5 (2nd) "Chargers" Agoura had a great season last year under Joe Riccio's leadership, but they graduated 11 seniors, including Adam Allegro, who is on the roster at Navy this year, and without all of the players from last season, the Chargers will be starting largely from scratch. The only two players returning that we know of are: Kevin Cornwell 6'-6" Sr. F Agoura will nevertheless play an upgraded and aggressive schedule, much more so than last season. This year, they'll be in the Burbank Tournament (actually we have no idea who else is in this one, because the only schedules which have it listed are Burbank and Agoura), the Newport Harbor Tournament |
Agoura Coach: Joe Riccio N-29/D-1 @ Burbank TournD 3-8 @ Newport Harbor Tourn 13 @ Oxnard 14 Oak Park J 04 *Newbury Park 07 @ *Thousand Oaks 11 @ *Moorpark 14 @ *Royal 16 *Simi Valley 18 @ *Westlake 23 *Royal 25 *Thousand Oaks 30 *Moorpark F 01 @ *Newbury Park 06 @ *Simi Valley 08 *Westlake |
| Westlake--
8-4, 14-9 (3rd) Westlake graduated most of its roster from last season (e.g., Tyler Adamczyk (6'-6" F), Devin Entrikin (6'-5" F), Brandon Duplessie, etc.). We're just not sure who is returning, but we believe they'll have Billy Graham 6'-4" Sr. F back on the roster. Westlake, as always will be in the Thousand Oaks Rotary Tournament (with T.O., Harvard-Westlake, Grant HS, Santa Barbara, Burbank Burroughs, Highland, Newbury Park, Lompoc, Oxnard, and Oak Park). They will also be in the Brea Olinda Tournament (Schurr, Brea Olinda, Claremont, Muir, Monrovia, Gahr, Warren, Murrieta Valley, Temecula Valley, Esperanza, and Ganesha) as well as the early season Saugus Tournament (featuring Buena, Saugus, Westlake, Canyon Country Canyon, Lancaster, Harvard-Westlake, Notre Dame (S.O.), Crescenta Valley, Glendale, and Oxnard), and thus they will see the chance for a lot of very good early season tournament competition. |
Westlake Coach: Rich Sanders N-27/D-1 @ Saugus TournD 3-8 @ Thousand Oaks Tourn 14 Channel Islands 17 @ Serra 26-29 @ Brea Olinda Tourn J 04 *Thousand Oaks 09 *Moorpark 11 @ *Newbury Park 14 @ *Simi Valley 16 *Royal 18 *Agoura 23 *Simi Valley 28 @ *Moorpark 30 *Newbury Park F 01 @ *Thousand Oaks 06 @ *Royal 08 @ *Agoura |
| Simi Valley--7-5,
18-8 (4th) "Pioneers" 11
Brian Sullivan 5’ 6" Sr. G Only a two players return from last year's squad, a team that went 20-5 overall, won their own tournament (the Simi Valley Tip Off Classic) and also won the War on the Floor Tournament. The two returning players are KC Bellefontaine and Gabriel Duarte, so it's safe to say that for Coach Christian Aurand, it's time to rebuild. Losing Jered Weaver, Ryan Bradshaw, and current Gonzaga freshman and All-CIF forward Dustin Villepigue (6'-9" F) has got to hurt. And even with these guys on the roster last year, the team finished 4th in league, a huge step down for the Pioneers from previous seasons under coaches Dean Bradshaw and Bob Hawking, but it also speaks to the level of increased competition at the other schools in the league and the parity that now exists within the Marmonte League. Whether the trend of players "showing up" at Simi will continue in future years or not, is something we can't say, but Simi always has a way of being competitive both in the league race and post-season. And the schedule this season is as tough as ever, so hopefully Coach Aurand knows something we don't. The Pioneers start off by hosting their own tournament, the "Simi Tournament" which this year will include many of the top teams from Ventura County, including Ventura, Simi Valley, Calabasas, Santa Clara, Santa Paula, Littlerock, Moorpark, Newbury Park, Royal, Camarillo, Hueneme, Rio Mesa, as well as a few City Section schools as usual (e.g., Monroe, North Hollywood, etc). From there, they enter the always tough CV tournament, and then head to San Diego for the Torrey Pines National Prep Classic, still one of the biggest and best high school tournaments in the West. |
Simi Valley Coach: Christian Aurand N-27/D-1 Simi Valley TournD 11-14 @ Crescenta Valley Tourn 22 @ Notre Dame/SO 26-29 @ Torry Pines Tourn J 04 *Moorpark 07 @ *Newbury Park 09 *Thousand Oaks 14 *Westlake 16 @ *Agoura 18 *Royal 23 @ *Westlake 25 *Newbury Park 28 @ *Thousand Oaks F 01 @ *Moorpark 06 *Agoura 08 @ *Royal |
| Moorpark--5-7, 14-11 (5th) "Musketeers" Moorpark should be returning the following guys: Chris Willis 6'-0" Jr. G Look for Blake Sharpe, Ben Dalrymple and one or two others to step up, and they'll need to if they intend to improve on their performance last season, which saw them lose in the first round of the playoffs. The preseason tournament schedule is moderately challenging, and may be very challenging as it was last season. La Canada is usually a very tough tournament, but without the Craven twins from Bishop Montgomery dominating as they have the past two years, perhaps others will make a dent. Torrey Pines (the "National Prep Classic") is always tough too. |
Moorpark Coach: Tim Bednar N 26-30 @ Simi Valley TournD 11 @ Rio Mesa 14 Santa Paula 15-22 @ La Canada Tourn 26-29 @ Torrey Pines Tourn J 04 @ Simi Valley 07 *Royal 09 @ *Westlake 11 *Agoura 14 @ *Thousand Oaks 16 *Newbury Park 23 *Thousand Oaks 25 @ *Royal 28 *Westlake 30 @ *Agoura F 01 Simi Valley 06 @ *Newbury Park |
| Newbury Park--3-9,
13-12 6th) "Panthers" Every year for the past two years, Newbury Park has had difficulty with its hoop teams, mostly having to do with eligibility problems due to rules infractions from several players. As a result, the days when Newbury Park was dominant and in fact beating up on league favorite Simi Valley are a dim memory now. Still they return some good athletes and will likely have some other good players coming up in the ranks. Here's who should return: Chris Nooney 5'-10" Jr. G The tournament schedule features two local tournaments which will expose them to most of the top teams in Ventura County, as well as a few others. The Atascadero Tournament is a smallish tournament, but it always attracts a few good teams. This year it will have Atascadero (of course), Paso Robles, Righetti, San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, Whittier Christian, Marina, and Newbury Park. |
Newbury Park Coach: Steve Johnson N-27/D-1 @ Simi Valley TournD 3-8 @ Thousand Oaks Tourn 12 Rio Mesa 27-29 @ Atascadero Tourn J 04 @ *Agoura 07 *Simi Valley 09 @ *Royal 11 *Westlake 16 @ *Moorpark 18 @ *Thousand Oaks 25 @ *Simi Valley 28 *Royal 30 @ *Westlake F 01 *Agoura 04 *Moorpark 06 *Thousand Oaks |
| Royal --0-12, 1-23
(7th) This year's roster will include: Chris Johnson 6-2 Sr. SG The Bruins will play a relatively conservative schedule in preseason tournament play, including three tournamens, the Simi Tournament (see above), then at the Oak Park Tournament (Dos Pueblos, Oak Park, Royal, Calabasas, St. Joseph Santa Maria, and Hueneme among others), followed up by the Hart Tournament (Morningside, Hart, Royal, Burbank Burroughs, Littlerock, Palmdale, Glendale, Camarillo, and Murphy). It's been a long, long time since Royal has been a potential league challenger, but this year could be different. |
Royal Coach: Eddie Gutierrez N-27/D-1 @ Simi Valley TournD 05 Adolfo Camarillo 12 @ Huemene 19-21 @ Oak Park Tourn 26-29 @ Hart Tourn J 07 @ *Moorpark 09 *Newbury Park 11 @ *Thousand Oaks 14 *Agoura 16 @ *Westlake 18 @ *Simi Valley 23 @ *Agoura 25 *Moorpark 28 @ *Newbury Park 30 *Thousand Oaks F 06 *Westlake 08 *Simi Valley |
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