SoCalHoops High School News

High School Team Preview:
Brea-Olinda--(Oct. 10, 1999)

"I tell my players they need to work hard to achieve their goals both on the court and in life, that they always have to do their best to try to win. I'm never disappointed if my players work hard, keep a level head, and are gracious whether we win or lose."  Brea-Olinda Wildcats' Head Coach Bob Terry  

Brea Olinda competes in Orange County in the Orange League, against Savanna, Valencia, Anaheim, Western, and Magnolia. In the playoffs they competed in D-II-AA, based on their CBED enrollment figures determined as of last December;   the CIF reportedly will not revise the playoff sections using the new 1999 enrollment figures, so expect to see Brea still playing at the D-IIAA level this year as well when (not if, but when) they make the playoffs again.   Of course, this is a much different team than the ones of past years, including the one which last year made it to the Southern Section Quarterfinals.  The team has lost several players from last year, including point guard Kyle Dodd, who is now at Arizona State and Jarrett Skrifvars, who is at  Montana State, Billings.  The team also will be without the services of other graduating seniors such as Rob Woidneck, Dexter Villapando, Tim Pagano, Ricky Boehm,  Travis Shook and Kirk Reimer. In fact, from last year's team there are only four players returning:  Chase Ulcny, Landon Lewis, Ryan Moore and Ryan Wilber.  But these guys provide a great nucleus for head coach Bob Terry to work with and there are some excellent players from the JV who will be coming up to assist.

Terry is now in his second year as varsity head coach at Brea Olinda.  He's married, and he and his wife Dina have two boys, Christopher 6,   and Matthew, 1 and a half.  Terry served for two seasons as an assistant under one of the most successful coaches in Brea's history, Gene Lloyd, who compiled an impressive won-loss record of 334 wins and 10 league titles, who successfully coached more than a few D-I players, and brought the Brea-Olinda program to prominence during his 18 year run.   In the two seasons that Lloyd and Terry coached together, the team compiled a record of 50-9, and two consecutive appearances in the CIF Southern Section semifinals, and one Orange League title. Prior to becoming an assistant under Lloyd, Terry was the frosh coach, and his teams compiled a 43-2 record, and two Orange league titles.   His 1996-96 freshman team went 23-0.  Terry comes by his involvement with Brea honestly:  He was a 1987 graduate of the school, and he was named to the All-League team in his senior season.

Following his graduation from Brea, he enrolled at Fullerton JC where he was a two-time all-conference selection, and in his sophomore season, he was selected to the All-State team. He currently holds the record as the fourth-leading scorer in Fullerton's history, and still holds many other individual records. Terry continued his playing career at Azusa Pacific University where he graduated with a degree in sociology.   During the 1992-93 season at APU,  the team went 30-4 record and was ranked No. 1 in the country in NAIA.  Terry was named NAIA District 3 Player of the Year and was selected as an NAIA All-American.  Following his graduation Terry had a variety of coaching jobs, including at the junior high level for 3 years, at the high school level for 4, and as an assistant jv coach at APU for a year. In addition to his coaching duties at Brea Olinda HS, he also teaches PE at Brea Junior High.

Terry prefers to play an up-tempo game, but also realizes in high school, you need to adjust your coaching style to the talent available. He probably has the talent to play that style this season, as you'll see from the roster below.   His teams play hard, unselfishly, and more often than not, win the close games.

Last season , Brea really didn't have much competition in league play, beating quite a few teams by some very lopsided scores, including one 96-42 pasting of Anaheim, and 81-45 wipeout of Valencia, an 87-33 win over Western, a 97-56 win over Savanna (which then had Solomon Brown, who has since left for prep school). . . in short, they really wiped out a lot of teams in their league. In the first round of playoffs, they cruised past Los Amigos, 79-54, and then beat Buena Park 68-61 in the second round.  But in the third round quarterfinals, they ran into eventual Southern Section CIF finalists Gahr, the Cinderella-team of the 1998-99 season, and lost by two points 63-61.  This year could be tougher inasmuch as the team is probably not as deep, and some of the league opponents will have good returning teams which might be a bit deeper.  Still, Brea returns a good group and is moving several players up from jv who will fill out the spots vacated by last year's graduating seniors.

Here's the anticipated roster for 1999-2000, based in part on who we saw at some of the fall tournaments; there could be some movement and a few other players added, but this is probably the nucleus of this year's Wildcat team:

This is a team that doesn't have a tremendous amount of size inside (or anywhere else for that matter) and with no true big men, they'll have to depend on speed, outside shooting, swarming defense, and the ability to get out ahead of the ball on the break , which are things that this team is,  fortunately,  capable of doing, and which it actually does very well.  We've talked with other coaches in the region about Brea's team this year, at least the one that's been playing in the Fullerton Fall League over at Fullerton JC against other teams like Villa Park, Esperanza, Nogales, Sunny Hills, Canyon, El Dorado and Valencia, and every coach we've spoken with has said virtually the same thing about this Brea squad:  They shoot the ball very well, bust up zones and run the floor,  and with their quickness and ability to score off the break, they make matchups very difficult for their opponents.   And besides having some good all-around athletes, they might also qualify as an All-American Academic Decathalon team since there are more than a few 4.0+ students on this team, something which always seems to be a hallmark of Brea teams.   

In the backcourt, we'd look for Chase Ulicny to take over the starting point duties for Kyle Dodd, who is at ASU, although Curtis Levine, another senior point will probably see a lot of time as well, and the two will often play together.  Dodd's shoes are pretty big ones to fill for either of these guys, particularly since Kyle was one of the most athletic, quickest and highest jumping 6'-0" Brea players last season, frequently playing as much above the rim as he did below it.  While neither Chase nor Curtis  have Kyle's speed or blinding quickness, nor his jumping ability, they do have solid point guard skills, and both sees the floor very well.  Chase is  an excellent passer, and a tenacious defender, a smart, crafty player who can pick a ball clean on defense, and find the open man through double coverage in the open court and on the break. Levine is coming up from jv last season, and he'll display some of the talents that led that team to an outstanding record last year.  Erik Giesler, a young sophomore who is also quick and smart, will also vie for time at the point, and we'd expect to see him work into the rotation with some degree of regularity, in what essentially looks like it will be a three or four guard system, especially on a team which really lacks a big guy and will need to run a system where virtually everyone on the floor is a guard. 

At the two, there are quite a few options for Terry, all of the excellent shooters, who have good quickness and make matchups very difficult for opponents: Landon Lewis, Derrick Martin, Steven Schaefer, Shawn Blattenberger, and Arthur Escalera, and based on last season,  Lewis is probably considered the favorite to start as the only returning varsity player at the position, and given some of those same performances, we'd have to say that he'll probably be the feature player at this position, at least until one of the others unseats him.  Lewis is one of the better pure shooters in Orange County, and last year, he set several records from behind the three point arc, including hitting 11 three-pointers in one game for 33 points against Western (which featured last year's best-kept secret in all of Orange County, only recently "discovered" by college recruiters, Robert Turner, a 6'-7" Sr. SG/SF). Landon's eleven 3's in that game tied the record for the most in Orange County history, and his 9 3's in a single quarter (the third) had to be a record of some kind, and they also proved that Kyle Dodd was a true point guard, passing up his own open shots to get the ball to the man with the hot hand, and Kyle finished that game with 14 assists, an extremely impressive stat. Lewis is a quick shooter, more of a catch-and-shoot type of player than a guy who creates off the dribble, he's got an effective release, and great foot and body positioning to hit either the open set-shot or the jumper out to three.   We only caught glimpses of the others who are all coming up from last year's jv at some of the fall tournaments, not enough to really say which of them can expect to see the most playing time, but they are all skilled players who can shoot the ball, which is what this team will need to succeed.

At the forward spots will be Ryan Moore, Ryan Wilber, and Kevin Schreck, and all of them are more combo wing-type players than true forwards, but with good shooting, the ability to run the floor and the ability to play the up-tempo game that Terry is looking for along with some tenacious defense, they should be productive this year up front for the Wildcats.  Ryan Moore, a guy who likes to slash to the basket and an effective rebounder and finisher, returns after a strong season last year, and he's also a good outside shooter, a smooth finisher who can get to the basket on the break and a good defensive stopper, which was his designated role more often than not last season since most of the offense last year tended to run through Dodd, Lewis, and Skrifvars.  But without two of the three this season, we'd look for Moore to increase his offensive production this year by getting the ball more on the break and in half-court sets out on the wing or in the high post.  Moore is another one of those 4.0 students (at least he was last year) and he's also been playing this past summer and fall on the tournament circuit with Bob Gottlieb's BWBA I and II teams in the Long Beach Fall Hoops Classic and the Double Pump Fall Premier Tournament.  The "other" Ryan, Ryan Wilber has also played with BWBA this past summer and spring, and he's a frequent participant at theBWBA Sunday workouts as well at Anaheim High.  Wilber is a skilled player, with a good shot, a fine defender with quick hands who will use his body effectively inside to get the ball to the basket or on the boards, and like Moore, we'd expect to see him as one of the major contributors and leaders on the team this season.   Schreck comes up from the JV this season, and again, like the rest of the guys moving up, it's hard to say just how he'll perform, but he's an athletic, strong player with good footspeed who can get up and down the court and will definitely help defensively.

Kirk Riemer, as far as we can tell,  will be the lone figure in the post and down low on the blocks, and while he's not really blessed with tremendous size, he does have some very good moves and runs the court well.  He's a returning starter, and is also a three-sport letterman in basketball, water polo, and volleyball. With some added muscle and an improved inside game, he's an effective rebounder who can score in close,  and will contribute at both ends.  He's an excellent student, who takes AP courses, and last year finished with a 4.1 GPA.

Brea will lead off the season with two scrimmage type games, an inter-squad game on Friday,  November 19, called the "Green and Gold" at Brea at 6:00 p.m.  Then, the Friday following Thanksgiving, Nov. 26, at 10:00 a.m., Brea will scrimmage Esperanza at Brea.  The preseason will really get underway when the Wildcats face one of the toughest games of their young season on December 4 at Southwest College where they'll play Gardena Serra, a team which features some great players including one of the top centers in the senior class, Aerick Sanders (6'-10" Sr. C/F).  From December 8-11 they'll play in one of two Glendora holiday tournaments, and then they'll be at two other tournaments in December, strictly local events:  The Edison International Holiday Basketball Festival which runs from the Dec. 14-18 at the Anaheim Convention Center, and then they'll host their own "Brea-Olinda Christmas Classic" at Brea from December 23-30 (there will be a break between the Thursday games on December 23, and the next games on Monday, December 27). In between those two tournaments, they'll sneak in a game with Servite at Servite on December 20, at 7:30 p.m., and then Terry has scheduled two more non-league contests, one on January 5, 2000 against Troy (at Brea), and then a rematch of sorts against Gahr, the team which beat Brea in last year's CIF SS playoffs, which will also take place at Brea on   January 7 at 7:30 p.m.  The rest of the league schedule looks like this:

This will not be an easy season for Brea, but with excellent athletes, good shooting and difficult matchups for opponents, we're certain they'll do very well in league competition this year and could potentially make a serious run into the Division II-AA playoffs again this year. We'll be watching.

 
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