CIF-SS Small Enrollment Division
Preview:
Santa Fe League 2001-02--(Nov. 10, 2001)
| SANTA FE LEAGUE Bell-Jeff Cathedral La Salle Murphy Salesian St Genevieve |
The Santa Fe League is an interesting league for a "small schools" (e.g., all Division IV) league, in that it features teams which seem to run the gamut from very competitive to seemingly non-competitive, teams which in the past have featured Division I college prospects dominating against players whose biggest ambitions have been to simply make the varsity squad. Last year the talent base in the league showed a bit more parity than in prior seasons, and this year looks to be more of the same. Cathedral won the league, followed by La Salle and Murphy and Bell Jeff (in that order). Each of the teams finishing from 1-4 made the playoffs, but no one had great success. Cathedral was eliminated in the second round of IV-AA, while Murphy lost in the first round of the same bracket. La Salle didn't even make it that far, losing their wild-card game in the IV-AA bracket which preceded first round competition. And Bell Jeff was unlucky enough to draw Gardena Serra in first round competition in the V-AA playoffs, losing that game and ending the Guards' season earlier than they would have liked. Salesian and St. Gen's didn't make the playoffs, and we have no predictions for them this year either.
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.
| Santa Fe League Rosters | Santa Fe League Schedules |
| Bell-Jeff--4-6, 13-11
(4th) "Guards" While Bell Jeff graduated 5 seniors from last year's roster, including their leading scorer, Casey Markovic, they still return some solid players including: Tyler Kealey 5'-11" Sr. G The above roster includes several newcomers, and in fact is the "official" team roster provided to us by Coach Eli Essa, who also provided us with his insights into this year's team: "This team could be good, this team could be...not so good. Bell-Jeff is a senior laden team with 8 of the top 10 players, including 3 returning starters, returning from a 14-12 season. As frosh & JV's they won the Santa Fe League titles now it's time for them to step up & see what they can do as experienced seniors on the Varsity level. The backcourt is very strong and quick with Romel Cabrera (a 4 year Varsity starter) and All-Leaguer Tyler Kealey returning. Both play the 1 & 2, handle the ball extrtemely well, have good court vision and shoot with good range. The big summer surprises, which could make all the difference this season, were Ryan Johnson who has grown to 6'7 and improved his game tenfold. His defense, rebounding and shot blocking were always pretty good but he is scoring much more averaging over 17pts this past summer with 25 points in a win over Harvard Westlake. Also, Tony Essa 6'1 our be! st perimeter defender is now consistantly finding the net from mid-range on in and is a terrific rebounder for his size. Brian Alfaro, 6'4- 235lb Soph,could take pressure off Johnson inside. He's a good passer & shooter but not fleet of foot nor a very good jumper but a big body non the less, co-ordinated and understands his role. Other players which could step up are Clarence Viray, Jr. (JV-MVP), Mike Argento and Matt Natorianni. Perhaps the biggest question mark remains to be Chris Chavez, a gifted 6'3 power forward ,started nearly half of last years games, but quit the team after 2 summer league games and has recently asked to return to the team. It is questionable, at best, whether he will make up lost ground and stay focused but if he does he could be a force.. This year's potential success will be more a result of an overall "team" effort which is very pleasing to the staff as compared to the star quality showcasing of the past players such as Ruben Douglas (Arizona, New Mexico), Kent Dennis (West Virginia, LMU), Carlos Arroyo (Cal State Dominguez Hills) and Casey Markovic. Still the prevailing thought here is that Daniel Murphy and perhaps La Salle are the teams to beat in the competitive Santa Fe league. Coaches: Eli Essa, Roger Normile, Russ Johnson, Bill Hank |
Bell-Jeff Coach: Eli Essa N 28 @ Ribet Academy |
| Cathedral--9-1,
15-9 (1st) With players last year
like Ryan Ramos and Update as of 11/12/01: We heard from Michael Godoy, an assistant coach at Cathedral, and he had this to say and a partial roster based on the comments: Ralph Peneida 6'-3" Jr. F "As for the roster for Cathedral, we lost 10 seniors to graduation, and return only two varsity lettermen. Junior Ralph Peneida (6'3'') F and junior Chris Flores (5'8'') PG. Our program has been very unpredictable for the last couple of years simply because the majority of our basketball players play football, who usually go very far in the playoffs. However, based on what we saw in the summer, we have a couple of players, who played JV last year that will contribute on varsity this year. Senior Fabian Corona (5'7'') SG is a deadly shooter that can make it rain three's. Also senior Mitchell Hernandez (6'1'') SG will make some noise off the bench. Junior Michael Feist (6'2'') F shows a nice touch around the top of the key while also providing a big body down low. The core of the team will be the three juniors mentioned, Ralph Peneida, Chris Flores, and Mike Feist. While Ralph and Mike provide a couple of big bodies, the team will certainly not have a "Earvin Johnson" type player, who was the league MVP. Last year's success was truly a miracle that head coach Rolando Young whipped up, and it is gonna take another miracle this year to match last year's success. Although our basketball program is going through a rebuilding stage, do not turn your back on us, or else we will sneak up behind you and take league like we did last year."
|
Cathedral Coach: Rolando Young N 19 St Monica (Scrimmage) |
| La Salle--7-3, 16-9
(3rd) "Lancers" La Salle is now a couple of years away from their strongest teams of the 90's, the ones that coach Goldstein had which dominated opponents with tremendous guard play, solid shooting and offensive and defensive speed, but the returning players for this year's team should form a very solid nucleus capable of duplicating some of that past success, and will again challenge for a league title. They came up short last season to Cathedral and Murphy, but both of those teams will be rebuilding. We recieved some information from the coaching staff at La Salle following our initial publication of the league preview, and since it's more complete, and more accurate than what we had, we'll just go with it. The number after player height is a player's weight. Here's the roster for 2001-02: *Jeremiah DeLeon 6'0" 160 senior "We return five players(three starters) from last year's team and will be aided greatly from the others who come from a 19-1 JV team. Our team will be led by Napolitano, DeLeon, and Mahlmann who were starters on last year's team. Anthony Napolitano and Jeremiah DeLeon are both excellent shooter/scorer wing types. Andrew Mahlmann will play forward and is our best athlete and best defender. Pat Kennedy will provide solid backcourt play and Andrew Taylor should be our top rebounder. Coach Goldstein is looking forward to coaching a much more defensive minded group this year."
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La Salle Coach: Steve Goldstein N 27 Blair |
| Murphy--8-2, 19-7
(2nd) "Nobles" Returning players are expected to include: Chuma Awaki 6'-3" So. G We haven't seen an official roster for this year's team, but they return some solid players, including Chuma who spent some time in the off-season playing with Rockfish and improved a lot. Murphy has an ambitious tournament schedule, including the Powerade Las Vegas Holiday Prep Classic, where they'll be matched against other smallish team (e.g., LACES, etc) in the Copper Cup bracket. They'll also see some larger-sized enrollment competition in the Beverly Hills tournament which kicks off their season and at the Hart Tournament at the end of December just prior to the start of league. |
Murphy Coach: Andrew Hunter D 3-8 @ Beverly Hills Tourn |
| Salesian--2-8,
6-19 (5th) Salesian didn't contend for a league title last season, and didn't make the playoffs. We thus have no idea who will be on the team this year. We do, however, have the official schedue, at right. |
Salesian Coach: Brian Coleman N 27 @ Warren |
| St. Genevieve--0-10, 8-12 (6th) Like Salesian, St. Genevieve didn't make the playoffs, and thus we have no idea who will be returning this season. They didn't win a league game last year, so anything would be an improvement. They'll be playiung other small schools in the early pre-season at the Providence Tournament and then at the Village Christian Tournament, so it looks like their schedule is appropriate.....otherwise they're going to really surprise some people. |
St Genevieve Coach: Jack Sunderlik N-29/D-1 @ Providence TournD 03 Marshall 06 @ Lutheran/LA 11 LA Baptist 13 @ West LA Baptist 19 Valley Torah 21 @ New Roads 26-29 @ Village Christian Tourn J 04 *Bell-Jeff 09 *Murphy 11 *La Salle 18 @ *Cathedral 22 @ *Salesian 25 @ *Bell-Jeff 30 @ *Murphy F 01 @ *La Salle 04 *Cathedral 06 *Salesian |
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