High school basketball: Fearless, fabulous freshmen

Less than five seconds into his first varsity summer basketball game, freshman Myles Franklin of Newhall Hart dribbled the length of the court and scored on a layup against Simi Valley Royal.

His full-speed-ahead attitude is similar to that of other incoming freshmen basketball players who have debuted this summer. They are all seemingly in attack mode and comfortable stepping onto the court and contributing immediately.

Whether it’s because some have repeated eighth grade to gain more maturity or have prepared by playing in tough travel-ball situations, they show a fearlessness when competing against older competitors.

That’s why coaches are inserting them into the starting lineup almost immediately this summer.

Franklin, a point guard, is the latest impressive freshman. He made his debut Monday night in the Burbank league. He joins another freshman point guard, Aaron Holiday of North Hollywood Campbell Hall, as a likely starter next winter.

At Los Angeles Windward, Coach Miguel Villegas is calling his five incoming freshmen “The Fab Five.”

Three of them will play varsity — 6-foot-6 Mason Shepard, 6-6 Roy Hemsley and 6-3 Ramon Davis. Shepard and Hemsley are already top scorers.

At Playa del Rey St. Bernard, Coach Reggie Morris Jr. has 6-8 Brodricks Jones and 6-6 Chance Comanche, both of whom could be varsity starters.

The summer season has just begun, so there could be more impact freshmen emerging.

Tournaments galore

Starting Monday, Fairfax, Westchester and Compton Dominguez will be hosting basketball tournaments, all ending with championship games on July 2. You’ll need to be a magician or hire a helicopter to be three places at once.

Mater Dei is entered in both the Fairfax and Westchester tournaments. Fairfax also has Los Angeles Loyola and Studio City Harvard-Westlake. Westchester has Woodland Hills Taft. La Verne Lutheran and Los Angeles Price lead the teams at Dominguez.

This weekend, Corona del Mar in Newport Beach is hosting a tournament that includes Mater Dei and Las Vegas Bishop Gorman, led by Shabazz Muhammad, the No. 1 college prospect on the West Coast. If Muhammad isn’t away at a camp, the Saturday 4:15 p.m. game between Mater Dei and Bishop Gorman ought to be a good one.

Football action

There will be seven-on-seven passing tournaments this weekend at La Verne Bonita, Beverly Hills and Thousand Oaks.

Also, B2G Sports is holding an elite camp at UCLA, with its skill-positions competition on Sunday.

On the road

Many of the region’s top baseball players are either in Arizona or North Carolina this week trying to make USA 16U and 18U national teams.

eric.sondheimer@latimes.com

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