SoCalHoops High School News

Mojave All-Area Teams & Mojave
River League All-League--(Mar. 30, 2000)

The All-Mojave River League boys basketball team was selected by the league's coaches. Silverado High's Jeremiah Phillips and Victor Valley's Ryan Dillon were selected as the co-Most Valuable Players. Here is a list of the All-Mojave River League, followed by the list of the "All-Area Team" (which is a slightly different list) selected by the Victor Valley Daily Press sportswriters.   We've also included some news which a friend sent us from the Daily Press.

One of our friends out in the Mojave River League area, i.e., the Victor Valley region, also sent us this really nice article from the Victor Valley Daily Press, highlighting the 1999-2000 All-Area Boys' Basketball team (as selected by the newspaper, which is a different list than that selected by the region's coaches)   including a special focus on Ryan Dillon, one of the two Players of the Year:

Daily Press 1999-2000 All-Area Boys Basketball Team
'Gamer' Dillon lit up scoreboard for Victor Valley
Guard led Jackrabbits into quarterfinals of the CIF-SS Division I-A
playoffs
By John Murphy - Staff Writer

Think of your prototypical high school basketball star and you think of a gym rat. Pete Maravich practicing his dribbling in a movie theatre. Or Larry Bird flinging them up against an Indiana barn. Not to spoil any illusions, but Ryan Dillon didn't follow that path to stardom. "I wasn't always in the gym and I didn't live around a ball" Dillon said. "I played a lot, but not every single day. Maybe I'd be better if I was like that." But when the official tossed the ball up, Dillon came through for Victor Valley High School. His brilliance during the 1999-2000 season has earned him the Daily Press All-Area Most Outstanding Player Award.

"I think that I'm a gamer," Dillon said. "I don't even like playing 5 on 5 (pick-up games) all that much. I like real games. I just like the atmosphere." "I'm glad he's gone," Barstow coach Brian Brown said of the graduating Dillon. "His leadership on the court and his ability to come through in tough situations really helped them. No matter who he was playing against, he didn't back down." Added Hesperia coach Sergio Lugo: "Opposing defenses had to pay a lot of attention to Dillon and that made all of the people around him better."

Overall, Dillon can't be displeased with a season in which Victor Valley went deeper into the playoffs than any other Mojave River League team. He was also honored, along with Silverado's Jeremiah Phillips, as co-MVP of the MRL. "It was a great season," Dillon said. "I was disappointed we didn't win league( Victor Valley lost a key game to Sultana when Dillon was out with a ankle sprain), but other than that I thought we came together well in the playoffs. I knew we were capable of doing that. Nobody expected us to do well and we had nothing to lose. We didn't want to leave without giving it our best."

Led by Dillon, VVHS pounded Poly of Riverside in the opening round of the playoffs, then reeled off big upset victories over Claremont and Troy. Finally, the dream of a trip to the Southern Section Division I-A title game at The Pond was extinguished when Mater Dei whipped the Jackrabbits in the quarterfinals at Serrano High.

Even for a guy who enjoys math, Dillon put up some heady numbers. He averaged 22.8 points, 6.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists, and 2.7 steals this season. In the playoffs he upped the ante, averaging 24 points per game. Dillon also made 105 3's, eclipsing his old record for a season of 81. Little wonder that the Jackrabbit sharpshooter has a vanity license plate that says "3PT MAN". For his career, the four-year varsity player scored nearly 1,500 points, putting him second all-time on the VVHS list to Clyde Rivers, who played during the reign of legendary coach Ollie Butler.

"I enjoyed three years of Ryan's dedication to the game and to Victor Valley High basketball," said coach Matt Denny, who took over the program form Kurt Herbst in 1997-98. "He was a joy to coach and his efforts have paid off. Someday I hope to watch him play on T.V."

Undecided on a college so far, Dillon is being pursued by Utah, Pacific, UC Davis, Davidson, Bucknell, Florida AM, Long Beach St. He figures to sign a letter-of-intent next month. "I want to stay close to home," Dillon said. I   don't want to go real far. Anywhere in California is fine."

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