CIF-SS Small Enrollment Division
Preview:
Rio Hondo League 2001-02--(Nov. 25, 2001)
| RIO HONDO LEAGUE Blair La Canada Monrovia San Marino South Pasadena Temple City |
The Rio Hondo League title is, in our view, going to again come down to a battle between La Canada and Monrovia, and the battle for the third automatic playoff spot will be between the rest. Monrovia returns the most talented player in the league, Bryant Markson, who has signed with Utah, but La Canada also has a couple of legitimate D-I prospects, including the sensational junior point guard Billy Hofman who knows a thing or two about basketball, having learned it from his father, the longtime coach at La Canada. We know a little bit about the rest of the teams in the league, but not a lot. What follows is in most cases only partial roster information, with some history, occasional player insights, and schedules. The schedules are accurate as far as we know, because they've come from the CIF-SS office. Like the rest of our league previews, we can't be everywhere at once, so we encourage coaches to send us their official rosters (via e-mail) and any other information about their teams so we can update these previews. Here's what we know, which admittedly isn't complete:
| Rio Hondo League Rosters | Rio Hondo League Schedules |
| Monrovia--10-0,
21-4 (1st) "Wildcats" Monrovia made it last year to the II-A playoffs third-round quarterfinals before losing to Ocean View. The No. 1 team in the Rio Hondo League played Hacienda Heights Wilson in the first round (an at-large entry from the Miramonte League), then dropped Fullerton in the second round before losing in the quarters. We haven't seen a roster for the 2001-02 season but based on last year's roster, Monrovia will still be deep and could challenge for the league title again. Unfortunately for them, they lost Ryan O'Hara 6'-7" Sr. F who transferred to Muir, principally for football (he's a QB and signed with Arizona), and promising freshman big man Thomas Herring, a 6'-8" 260 lb space-eater, who has transferred to LA Fremont, and who helped the Pathfinders defeat LA Birmingham this past Wednesday, taking them to the LA City Section semi-finals....but that's a who different story and a different sport.....). Also inside, Monrovia returns one of the best players in the San Gabriel Valley region, Bryant Markson a 6'-6" Sr. F who has signed a National Letter of Intent to play basketball at the University of Utah next season. Again, we don't have the official roster, but here's who should be returning: Ray Lewis 5'-11" Sr. G Hopefully, the LA Times, and/or one of the Los Angeles Newsgroup papers (e.g., Pasadena Star News, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, etc) will publish their league and team previews soon. Better yet, someone may want to e-mail us a full roster. The schedule this season is challenging, but shouldn't overwhelm. Update 11/26/01: The Pasadena Star News' "Prep Sports" section featured a very nice article by sportswriter Keven Chavez on Monrovia and Bryant Markson in particular. It can be found at this link. Based on the article, it appears that Markson's injury, suffered at a Rockfish Spring League game, hasn't completely healed yet, but Markson is still looking forward to the season. In the article, he talks about the effect that the injury had on him this past summer and how the injury occurred: "I took a charge from some 320-pound dude,'' he said. "As soon as I tried to stand up, I just fell right back down. I crawled off the court and tried to walk but couldn't even do that.'' * * * For Markson, the injury meant doing rehabilitation and watching from the sidelines instead of playing in the nation's top spring and summer tournaments. "It's hard, the hardest thing I've ever done,'' said Markson, who averaged 20 points and eight rebounds last year. "I'm in Vegas at Big Time tournament and it's killing me to not be out there. I was a little upset. It's been a challenge.'' * * * "On the Internet, it said that some people just don't recover and are never the same (after ACL surgery),'' Markson said. "So I was a little nervous and thought, `There goes my college career,' but then all I do is look at (Charlotte Hornets guard) Baron Davis. He had this and look at him.'' Markson is ahead of schedule and is expected to be cleared to play around the second week of December. It should be just in time to make his third varsity season the charm.
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Monrovia Coach: Doug Schmidt D 3-8 @ Arroyo Tourn |
| La
Canada--7-3, 22-7 (2nd) We bumped into Coach Tom Hofman at one of the few fall exposure events (no D-I coaches, but plenty of D-II, III and NAIA guys there), and while he promised to send us a roster, we haven't seen one yet, and didn't want to hold off on the preview any longer. Update 12/03/01: Here's the roster from Coach Hofman: 3 Andrew Scott Jr G 6-0 Players to watch JV 6-6 Phillip Anderson Fr Could be one of the best at LC
The LA Times had a small capsule report on a few of the teams in the league in the Glendale-Pasadena local edition, and while it wasn't complete either, it's better than nothing. Here's what the LA Times published this past Friday, 11/23/01, and we've added some information where known: Coach: Tom Hofman, 16th year. Players to watch: Hofman's quote: "This team is even more deeper than last year's. We've got five guys returning, who at one point or another, have started in their career. The Times also carried a story by local sportswriter Hamlet Nalbandyan, who regularly sees La Canada and wrote about them extensively last season. Here's the excerpt from the article pertaining to La Canada's prospects for the 2001-02 season: "Tom Hofman's squad not only has the superstar, but its got plenty of talent down the roster as well. Which is why the Spartans are thinking Rio Hondo League title for the first time since 1998. "This team is even more deeper than last year's," said Coach Tom Hofman. That's an impressive statement considering La Canada went 22-7 last year and was arguably the area's best squad. And like last year, Billy Hofman will carry the torch for the Spartans. The junior point guard just might be the area's best player. He only scores about 10 a game, but he also averages seven assists and plays flawless defense -- and you'll rarely see him make a poor decision with the ball. The Spartans also have one of the purest shooters out there in Neyland. An all-league first-team selection last year, look for him to improve on his 12-point-per-game average this season. Outside of those two, the Spartans -- unlike other area teams -- have about six or seven more players that can start and contribute regularly, led by 6-foot-5 forward Greg Gaudino and sharp-shooting guard Joel Kim." Again, we'll update the roster as soon as we receive a complete list of players. . .
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La Canada Coach: Tom Hofman N 26 @ Highland |
| Temple City--5-5, 13-11 (3rd)
"Rams" Temple City finished third in league and made it to the Division II-A playoffs, where they lost their first round game against the Orange League's No. 3 entry, Magnolia, which lost in the second round to section runner-up Mayfair. We haven't seen a complete roster yet, but based on the playoff roster from last season, here's what we'd expect to see this season: Kevin Sweeney 6'-0" Jr. G Not a lot of size, so the Rams will again have to stress defense and good perimeter shooting if they want to qualify again for the playoffs. |
Temple City Coach: DID NOT SUBMIT SCHEDULE |
| Blair--4-6,
11-13 (4th tie) "Vikings" While Blair made the III-AA playoffs last season, the Vikings finished in a tie for 4th in league, and thus didn't get an automatic berth, but did receive an At-large berth by virtue of the 11-win rule. They managed to get Pomona in the first round, the Miramonte League's No. 2 team, and lost. Based on last year's playoff roster, here's who we expect to see back on the Blair roster for 2001-02: Kenny Norris 5'-11" Sr. G Blair only graduated one senior, Adam Rodriguez a 6'-1" F from last year, but the Vikings hopes took a turn for the worse over the summer when Darryl Strawberry Jr., 6'-2" So. G/F decided to join his cousin Mikey at Mater Dei and transferred out.
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Blair Coach: Shawn Peron N 27 @ La Salle |
| South Pasadena--4-6, 8-16 (4th tie) South Pasadena didn't qualify for the playoffs, winning only 8 games overall and as a result, we don't have a playoff roster to review, and while we think we recall someone sending us a roster for the 2001-02 season, we can't seem to locate it on the computer we're working on to prepare this. . . .maybe we'll find it during the coming week, but if not, we're sending out an SOS for South Pasadena. |
South Pasadena Coach: Ryan Weisenberg N 27 Alhambra |
| San
Marino--0-10, 3-22 (6th) Like South Pasadena and Blair, we have absolutely zero information. We'll update this as soon as we get something reliable in the way of roster info. In the meantime, we have a schedule. |
San Marino Coach: Sonny Hayes N 27 San Gabriel |
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