SoCalHoops High School News

High School Team Preview:
Trabuco Hills Mustangs--(Nov. 26, 2000)

The "official' high school season in Southern California begins tomorrow, November 27, when teams can schedule their first regular games.  And some of the more traditional (e.g., newspaper) media have been printing and publishing league and team profiles too, which is a very good thing, because it saves us a ton of time in researching our own previews and profiles. So with thanks to the OC Register (which did a short preview of the South Coast League boys' and girls teams today), here's our own SoCalHoops preview of the South Coast League teams.   Rather than do this as one solid "league" profile though, we've broken the reviews down team by team, in to separate reports.  

Trabuco Hills Mustangs Division I-A Head Coach: Rainer Wulf 14th Season (211-150) 99-00: 13-13 Overall 5-5 League (3rd Place)

1999-2000 South Coast League Final Standings Team League Overall El Toro 10-0 24-5 Capistrano Valley 7-3 17-9 San Clemente 5-5 14-10 Trabuco Hills 5-5 13-13 Mission Viejo 3-17 12-17 Dana Hills 0-10 6-20

"Look for a 5th place finish in league" (which might mean a struggle to reach the playoffs) according to the league preview published in the OC Register today, 11/26/00.  We're not sure we agree with that, but then someone has got to finish 5th, right?  Coach Rainer Wulf begins his 14th season and whether he's got the talent to make a serious run at a league title and stay on the high side of the league  is something that only time will tell. 

The Mustangs will have to learn how to score without a really big offensive weapon on their  roster.  Brennon Martin, a solid and deadly accurate shooter, signed with Villanova this fall, after attending a prep school in the fall--he had committed to Texas A&M prior to graduation, but later withdrew that commitment, reportedly at the suggestion of the A&M coaches.  But we don't see anyone replacing his offensive power, at least not with the kind of outside shooting and slashing to the basket that Brennon brought to  the team.   Also gone are graduated seniors Jono Castleton, Anthony Newkirt, Evan Fields and Lamont Holt.

This season, the Mustangs return five other key players, including Aaron Tudor, who averaged 10 ppg and 4 assists per game, Ian Wright, a wing-forward type who managed 6 ppg , John Kupper, another wing type player with a pretty   good shot, John Baggerly and Travis Wittick, a 5'-9" point guard who will likely share the backcourt with Tudor. 

Also joining them will be a very talented transfer, James Webster (6'-4" Jr. G) who came over from Mater Dei last spring.  James reportedly transferred from Mater Dei for baseball reasons having nothing to do with basketball at Mater Dei, and actually besides being a sort of jokester (he's the guy who most likely would (and did at the South Orange County Extravaganza) wear argyle socks as part of his uniform. . . he's also a tough nosed defender, who plays with a ferocious tenacity when the situation warrants it, and if he stays focused throughout the season, Webster could provide some valuable skills to this team.  Also joining the squad will be Marcus Wooden. This is a team which could do much better than the rest of the South Coast League coaches are predicting, but just how well, is something that only time will tell. Finally, there were two other guys on the roster last season, Jay Nelson and Sean Boatright, who were not listed in the OC Register preview, and unless they've moved, we'd expect to see them on the team this season.

The schedule is fairly sedate and the Mustangs will stay local for the most part, at least as much as we can understand what their true schedule will be:  While the CIF official schedule has them playing at the "Loyola Tournament" from November 30-Dec. 3, we believe this is an error, or a bit of scheduling that didn't really come off, because Trabuco Hills appears to be the only team scheduled to participate in such a tournament, and that includes Loyola.  Where, if anywhere, the Mustangs will be during that time, is a mystery.  The rest of the schedule was also slightly off on all the rest of the dates, but it looks like they'll be at their own Trabuco Hills tournament from December 18-23 (the schedules says Dec 16-21, but that would mean a Saturday start, which makes no sense), and then at the Estancia Tournament from December 27-30 (now there's one that makes sense, but it's really Dec. 26-30). Likewise, the rest of the schedule which appeared in the CIF media guide also looks screwed up when compared to the rest of the league (all the league games should be played on the same day, so if Trabuco Hills was the only one off, it's a good bet that the rest of the league schedule was correct) . . .  We just hope Coach Wulf can figure out where his team is going better than we can looking at the schedule which the CIF published.

 
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