SoCalHoops High School News

CIF-SS Academy League Preview, Schedules:
Calvary Chapel Downey The Favorite--(Nov. 4, 2000)

In our effort to get more information out as completely and as quickly as possible, we've decided to prepare some league overviews.   Not every league, but certainly those leagues which have teams in them who might be considered pre-season favorites to take a run at a CIF Southern Section Championship.    Of course, it's probably not going to be possible to feature every CIF or City Section league (Southern Section alone has 76 leagues, with an average of about 6+ teams in each), so don't say we're playing favorites.   We only have so much time in the day, and  we have our doubts that we'll be able to get through even those leagues we want to preview prior to the start of regular league play (which begins in December for some leagues)but who knows, we'll give it a shot. . . . Complicating matters further is the fact that not all schools made it to last season's playoffs, and thus we don't have access to complete (or even any) rosters in some cases (e.g., St. Michael's, below).  Further complicating things, some of the coaches are new and we either don't know them, or haven't gotten enough information on them.

We will still continue to feature our more in-depth previews and profiles, but we're trying to get as much information out in as short a time as possible, so complete coverage just isn't possible.  But we're going to try.

Acacemy League Overview

The Academy League is smaller by two schools this year than last season, with Southern California Christian and Orangewood Academy now out of the league.    Not that their absence will make a bit of difference to league favorite Calvary Chapel Downey, which will likely once again crush their league opponents on the way to the Division V-AA CIF Southern Section playoffs, but it should help other schools like Capo Valley Christian and Fairmont.   Calvary Chapel finished the season four points shy of taking the D-VAA CIF Championship game last year, which they lost to St. Anthony, but the Grizzlies are back, older, stronger and better, and with a few new players from what we hear (we don't know a thing about them yet, but certainly will).  Capistrano Valley Christian, Fairmont, St. Michael's and St. Margaret's will all compete for second place in the league.  

You can find this year's official CIF Academy league schedule at this link (or simply scroll down the page:

Here's a brief look at the individual teams (at least where we've been able to get some information)--the scoring and rebounding averages are from the CIF Media Information forms submitted by each school prior to the start of last year's CIF playoffs, so don't blame us if you think they are not accurate. 

Calvary Chapel Downey Grizzlies
Division V-AA
City: Downey
Nickname: Grizzlies
Colors: Cardinal, Grey & White
Coach: Mark Berokoff
Overall Record: 21-5, League Record 12-0 (1st Place)
Returning Players:
DeShon Shuler (5'-9" Jr. G) 5.3 ppg, 3.1 rpg
Anthony Robinson (6'-0" Jr. G/F) 2.3 ppg, 3.8 ppg
Marcellous Glasper (5'-8" Jr. G)
Matt Henderson (6'-4" Jr. F) 10.6 ppg, 9.1 rpg
Timothy Drisdom (6'-3" Jr. G) 18.4 ppg, 6.2 rpg
Jonathon James (5'-10" Jr. G) 12.4 ppg, 4.1 rpg
Patrick Fitzgerald (6'-3" So. F)
David Banuelos (5'-10" Jr. G)
McKenna James (6'-4" Sr. F) 6.1 ppg, 3.8 rpg

Tim Drisdom (6'-3" Jr. G)

The Grizzlies won just about everything last year, easily taking their league with usually lopsided wins, and then they powered through the CIF D-VAA playoffs, making it to the finals where they were beaten by surprising St. Anthony's, which no one who followed this division last year would have predicted as the overall section champion (especially considering that they lost starting point guard AJ Diggs who transferred to Long Beach Poly for his senior season).  [Coincidentally, the St. Anthony's girls' team also won the Division V-AA title last season too, beating Pacific Hills].    And while the Grizzlies were also not among the top preseason picks among most who watched  D-VAA closely last year, they came together at just the right time, pulling off what many considered to be an upset of Campbell Hall at Calvary Chapel in the semifinals.  Making it to the finals ensured the Grizzlies of an entry into the State Southern Regional Tournament, where they made it past the first round, beating Central Section's Layton on Layton's own court. But then the Grizzlies faced the Price juggernaut, and in a very close game,  Price, which went on to win the State Championship in Division V, beat CC 75-69.   The Grizzlie's this season return starting point guard Tim Drisdom (pictured left), the CIF Southern Section D-VAA Player of the Year as a sophomore, and a legitimate Division I college prospect who is getting attention from many colleges, including several Pac-10's.  The Grizzlies  also pick up a new coach in Mark Berokoff, who replaces Mark Gruman.  Berokoff also took his former Heritage/Eastside Christian team to the D-VA finals last year (Heritage also lost to Price in the D-VA Southern Section finals).  We've heard about some new transfers to the school, but haven't spoken with Coach Berokoff about them yet.   The Grizzlies return 9 players and should be the odds-on favorite to take their league, and one of a handful of pre-season favorites to win a Division V-AA CIF title, and they could have a shot at a State title as well.

Capistrano Valley Christian Eagles
Division V-AA
City: San Juan Capistrano
Nickname: Eagles
Colors: Navy/Cardinal
Head Coach Frank Dews; Assistant: Derrick Hull
Overall record 9-14; League Record 6-6 (4th)
Returning players:
Jordan Sukut (6'-0" So. G)
Ben McKinney (5'-10" Jr. G)
Shun Blocker (5'-10" Sr. G)
Tyler Graves (6'-2" Sr. G)
Peter Miler (6'-0" Sr. F)
James :Pierce (6'-1" Sr. F)
Ian Smetona (6'-5" Sr. F/C)
Michael Sussman (6'-2" Sr. F)
Katsu Durst (5'-11" So. G)

The Eagles made the playoffs last year, one of the few teams that didn't have the 10 wins, but got into the tournament with a fourth place finish in what used to be an 8 team league, and thus they got the berth, but got hammered in the first round by Western Christian, losing 85-31.  It's a good news/bad news sort of thing with 8 players returning, and hopefully they've improved from last year.

Fairmont Huskies
Division V-AA
City: Anaheim
Nickname: Huskies
Colors: Hunter Green & Black
Head Coach: JT Cameron, Assistants: Josh Cameron, Alanzo Parker
Overall Record: 10-13, League Record 5-7 (5th Place)
Returning Players:
Mike Pastrano (6'-2" Sr. F)
Savis Shu (5'-7" Jr. G)
Lyone Kwok (5'-8" Sr. G)
Matt Gomez (5'-9" Sr. G)
Shawn Malik (5'-9" Sr. F)
William Washington (5'-9" Jr. G)
Jonathn Chang (6'-3" Jr. F)

Fairmont made it through the regular season and league play last year losing most of their games to stronger programs, e.g., twice to Calvary Chapel (92-31 in the first meeting, and 85-26 in the second).  Most of the losses were not that lopsided, but it does give some indication of the differences between the levels of the two programs, and unless Fairmont has had a miracle transfer or someone coming up who can really provide some offensive spark, it may be more of the same this year.   Fairmont went to the playoffs under the 10-win rule last year and lost in the first round to Pacific Hills, 96-24.  But at least they were there, which is what counts and they went down competing and trying.

St. Margaret's Tartans
Division V-AA
City: San Juan Capistrano
Nickname: Tartans
Colors: Red, Blue
Head Coach: Todd Johnson
Overall Record: 14-9; League 9-3 (2nd Place)
St. Margaret's finished in second place in the league. We watched them last season in their first round playoff game of the Division V-AA playoffs against Montclair Prep, a game which was also attended by several local universities who were at the time scouting Josiah Johnson, who as we all know wound up at UCLA.  St. Margaret's was a decent team, but wound up losing 79-52.  Unless they have some athletes coming in, it will likely be more of the same in league against Calvary Chapel. First year coach, Todd Johnson replaces Mark Dawson.

St. Michael's Prep
Division V-AA
St. Michael's didn't make the playoffs last season, finishing with a record of 3-9 in league (7th place in an 8 team league) and 8-10 overall and they did not qualify under the 10 win qualification for the playoffs.  We have no idea if they will be improved or not this season, or who is on the roster.  They do pick up a new coach, Charles Rown, who replaces Stephen Boyle.

Complete Official Southern Section League Schedule:

 
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