CIF-SS Small Enrollment Division
Preview:
De Anza League 2001-02--(Nov. 3, 2001)
| DE ANZA LEAGUE Aquinas Banning Beaumont Big Bear Notre Dame/Riverside San Jacinto Twentynine Palms Yucca Valley |
The De Anza League League consists of teams that fall into the Division III-A and IV-AA and IV-A playoff divisions, thus for our purposes putting them in the "small schools" enrollment divisions, i.e., schools with under 1000 students (the lowest enrollment for IV-A is likely to be 180, and thus there's a wide disparity....but for our purposes, without knowing the actual playoff placement at the time of this writing, we had to make a cutoff somewhere).
San Jacinto is the defending league champion, and they return a fair number of experienced players, 8 members of last year's varsity team. Banning has several top players, including Flamingo Malone, and some nice guard play with Marlon Harris, and they finished only one game out of first. Beaumont and Twentynine Palms also return quite a large percentage of last year's teams, and should also be competitive again. Beyond the top half of the league, we know very little about any of the other schools except the schedules. We encourage coaches to send us their rosters (via e-mail) and any other information about their teams so we can update these previews.
| De Anza League Rosters | De Anza League Schedules |
| San
Jacinto--13-1, 16-7 (1st) "Tigers" Greg Davis 6'-1" Sr. F |
San Jacinto Coach: Michael Paul N 30 Paloma Valley |
| Banning--12-2,
18-9 (2nd) "Broncos" Kelvin Stokes 5'-7" Sr. F Update 11/27/01: Today's edition of the Riverside Press Enterprise contained the paper's Riverside and San Bernardino region team previews and player profiles written and compiled by PE staff writer Richard Chaplin. The original story can be found at this link, and there's also a separate overview piece too, but we've excerpted the portion pertaining to Banning: BANNING Coach: Stan Smith 2000-01 record: 19-10 (reached second round of Division 3AA playoffs) Outlook: The Broncos return nine players, three starters and two -- Flamingo Malone and Marlon Harris -- in their third season. In addition, 6-foot-6 junior Brian Colby comes in to add more height to a team that is one of the biggest Smith has seen in recent years. "I do have a lot of experience, a lot of depth and some size," Smith said. Colby, who played on the junior varsity last season, will sub for Malone (6-5) or play alongside him. "He really came around in the summer, and he's looked really good," Smith said of Colby. Along with size, the Broncos have speed and scoring, Smith said. "You've got the areas that you need," he said. "But now it comes down to heart." Smith said expectations are higher than last year's second-round playoff exit. |
Banning Coach: Stan Smith N-26/D-1 @ Beaumont TournD 4-8 @ Arlington 12 *Twentynine Palms 14 @ *Big Bear 19-29 @ West Valley Tourn J 04 *Yucca Valley 07 @ *San Jacinto 09 @ *Aquinas 11 *Notre Dame/R 16 *Beaumont 18 @ *Twentynine Palms 23 *Big Bear 25 *San Jacinto 30 @ *Yucca Valley F 01 *Aquinas 05 @ *Notre Dame/R 07 @ *Beaumont |
| Beaumont--9-4,
14-11 (3rd) Cougars Chris Alsina 6'-0" So. F |
Beaumont Coach: Ron West N-26/D-1 Beaumont TournD 3-8 @ Desert City tourn 12 *Notre Dame 14 @ *Aquinas 18 @ *Twentynine Palms 19-29 @ West Valley Tourn J 04 *Big Bear 09 *San Jacinto 11 @ *Yucca Valley 16 @ *Notre Dame/R 18 *Aquinas 23 *Twentynine Palms 30 @ *Big Bear F 01 @ *San Jacinto 05 *Yucca Valley 07 *Banning |
| Twentynine Palms--7-7, 10-15 (4th) " Wildcats" Michael Barela 5'-9" Jr. G The roster above comes from the coach, Brian Murray, and he also gave us some notes on some of his guys, below: "Key players will be: "Ray Hester: He's a great player. Getting some looks from three different D-II schools back East where is originally from. He is our perimeter guy, leading the team in field goals made as well as %'s last year. He has trained hard over the summer, and has actually dropped about 15 pounds. He is quick and penetrates very well. His play will be a key factor in our success. "Ken Randle - Sr. Ken is our post game. He has the body of a 3 or 4, but plays back to the hoop very well. Extremely athletic and rebounds like a machine for a guy who is only 6' 4". He played extremely well this summer, and was named to the 2nd Team DeAnza League last year. He probably will avg somewhere in the teens in scoring, and could match that in rebounding. A definite presence. "Jon Cooley - Sr. Jon is our 6' 6" perimeter shooter. He has a great eye to the basketball and is learning to be more aggressive on the inside. He played with a traveling team this summer and went to the Junior Nationals in Atlanta. "Layton Matthews - 6' 3" ---42 inch vertical, . without a doubt the best athlete that I have ever had. He is strong, and goes to the hoop very well. He will play the high post for us as well as the baseline. Will lead team in rebounding this season and I predict will get many looks as a junior and even more as a senior. A great talent. "Sean O'Gilvie - 6' 5" -- Sophomore - Sean has made some great strides in the past 2 years. Played a full year (as a Freshman) of Varsity (which is unheard of at 29). He is probably the strongest kid we have and has a nice touch from 17 feet. He will be a post guy for us, back to the basket most of the time, but has some range. If he continues to grow, watch out. " Coach Murray also gave us a little history on himself and the program: "I started to teach and coach at 29 Palms HS in 1997 after leaving Nova Scotia, Canada. I have been the Varsity Head coach for 4 years and have accumulated a win loss record of 64-21. 1 CIF Championship Appearance and 1 CIF Semi-Final Appearance. The school on the other hand has been extremely successful. They have 8 DeAnza League Championships in the 90's and I am quoted the SB Sun when I say that the program here is the 2nd best (wins and loses) in San Bernardino County in the last 20 years, second to Eisenhower, which is very interesting. " Coach Murray also gave us a bit of his sense for how the team did last year and where he expects them to finish this season: "Last season was a reloading year for us, as we went 13-13, but we did it with a team made up of mostly Juniors. I am excited about this season, these kids have been in the program as long as I have, and we have built it together. This is the best team we have put on the floor in recent memory. "We played about 60 games over the summer and did very well, 48-12 -- winning the LaQuinta Tournament, and making it to the semi-finals in San Bernardino. We won the Big Bear Tourney as well as Flagstaff. It was a super summer. I have a feeling that the league will be competitive this season, but not spectacular. I would predict us to win league, but not go undefeated. Banning should have a good team as well as Big Bear. Depending on the Division IVAA teams, we should be tough to stop. We have seem to have a solid back court and our front court will be able to handle themselves. We lost to Crespi last year in the 1st round of playoffs -- after defeating them 2 years ago in the semis, it would nice to play them again." Update 11/27/01: Today's edition of the Riverside Press Enterprise contained the paper's Riverside and San Bernardino region team previews and player profiles written and compiled by PE staff writer Damian Secore (who can be reached by phone at 909-782-7595 The original preview capsules can be found at this link, and there's also a separate overview piece too, but we've excerpted the portion pertaining to Twentynine Palms: TWENTYNINE PALMS Coach: Brian Murray 2000-01 record: 13-14 (Lost in first round of Division 4AA). Outlook: The Wildcats are the county's best lower division school, appearing in the 1999 CIF championship game and the semifinals in 2000 in Murray's first two years. It has a strong presence inside, with center Ken Randle (6-5), and outside, with junior guard Bryan Cromwell (5-10) and junior forward Layton Matthews (6-2), who has a 44-inch vertical leap
|
Twentynine Palms Coach: Brian Murray D 6-8 @ Silver Valley Tourn |
| Aquinas-- 6-8, 10-10 (5th) | Aquinas Coach: Walt Joaquin N 27 Calvary Chapel/D |
| Notre Dame
Riverside--5-9, 6-15 (6th) Talani Calhoun 6’0” Sr. G |
Notre Dame/Riverside Coach: Rob Robinson N 27-30 @ Norte
Vista Tourn |
| Yucca Valley 2-12, 4-16 (7th) | Yucca Valley Coach: TBA N-27/D-2 @ Beaumont TournD 04 Joshua Spring 06 @ Desert Hot Springs 12 @ *Big Bear 14 @ *San Jacinto 19 @ West Valley Tourn J 02 @ *Aquinas 04 @ *Banning 09 @ *Notre Dame/R 11 *Beaumont 16 *Twentynine Palms 18 *Big Bear 23 *San Jacinto 25 *Aquinas 30 *Banning F 01 *Notre Dame/R 05 @ *Beaumont 07 @ *Twentynine Palms |
| Big Bear--dnr, dnr | Big Bear Coach: Ron Perkins D 6-8 @ Silver Valley |
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