Prep Rally: Predicting the eight teams selected for the Open Division basketball playoffs

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. The regular season in high school basketball ends this week in the Southern Section, with playoff pairings coming on Sunday. The focus is on which eight teams will be selected for the Open Division. Let’s speculate.

Open Division contenders

Amari Bailey heads toward one of his multiple dunks in Sierra Canyon’s 103-80 win over Culver City earlier this season.

(Myung Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Picking the eight teams for the Southern Section Open Division boys’ basketball playoffs got a little complicated last week with a couple of upsets.

There’s some leading contenders: Santa Ana Mater Dei (23-0), Sierra Canyon (9-0), Etiwanda (7-1), Corona Centennial (16-1), Damien (25-2), St. John Bosco (16-2) and Ribet (8-1).

The final team could be Colony (15-1), St. Bernard (6-1), Heritage Christian (16-6) or Harvard-Westlake (13-3). Harvard-Westlake upset Etiwanda 71-62 on Saturday after losing to Chaminade earlier in the week. Ribet defeated Heritage Christian after losing to Corona Centennial in overtime. If head-to-head matchups matter, Damien defeated Harvard-Westlake. Etiwanda has two wins over Damien. Heritage Christian has a win over Harvard-Westlake.

Big games this week that could influence seedings are Centennial-Roosevelt, St. John Bosco-Mater Dei, Sierra Canyon-Heritage Christian.

Mater Dei is loaded with size and experience and pulled off an impressive feat winning six games in six days last week. Sierra Canyon has the state’s No. 1 player in Amari Bailey but lost a top player, Chance Westry, who left town. Etiwanda has balanced scoring, plays great defense and is hungry to win a championship. Centennial has terrific young guards. Damien has USC-bound Malik Thomas. St. John Bosco loves to play top opponents and has Scotty Washington and Lamaj Lewis. Ribet’s starting five is fantastic and features Tyler Powell, Tre White and Mike Price.

For the Open Division girls’ tournament, the top teams include Corona Centennial, Mater Dei, Etiwanda, Harvard-Westlake, West Torrance and Sierra Canyon.

Boys’ basketball rankings

A look at the Times’ top boys’ basketball teams:

Rk. SCHOOL (W-L); Comment; last week’s ranking

1. SIERRA CANYON (9-0); Big game vs. Heritage Christian on Saturday; 1

2. MATER DEI (23-0); Won six games in six days; 3

3. CORONA CENTENNIAL (16-1); Could be team to beat in Open Division; 5

4. ST. JOHN BOSCO (16-2); Host Mater Dei on Thursday; 4

5. RIBET ADADEMY (8-1); Overtime loss to Centennial; 6

6. ETIWANDA (7-1); Having trouble with offensive production; 2

7. DAMIEN (25-2); Formidable guard duo with Smith, Thomas; 8

8. COLONY (15-1); On the bubble for Open Division; 11

9. HARVARD-WESTLAKE (13-3); Big win over Etiwanda; 9

10. HERITAGE CHRISTIAN (16-5); Open Division spot on the line vs. Sierra Canyon; 13

For the rest of the top 25, click here.

Kylan Boswell comes through

The best basketball game of the week matched two likely Southern Section Open Division playoff opponents, Corona Centennial and Ribet. Centennial trailed by as many as 11 points in the first half before rallying for a 79-75 overtime victory.

The game showed off Centennial’s talented sophomore guards, Kylan Boswell and Jared McCain. Boswell made a three at the buzzer of regulation to send the game into overtime. McCain clinched the victory by making two free throws with six seconds left in regulation.

Boswell finished with 29 points. Ribet has as much talent as any team in Southern California. Ribet picked up an important 71-69 win over Heritage Christian on Saturday.

Amari Bailey of Sierra Canyon set a school record by scoring 46 points against Campbell Hall. The junior guard headed to UCLA is having an MVP season.

Tribute to Russell Westbrook

Southern California produces so many great athletes in a variety of sports, and Russell Westbrook from Leuzinger High in Lawndale is just the latest.

The Washington Wizards star broke a record set by Oscar Robertson that few thought would be broken: the most triple doubles (meaning double figures in points, rebounds and assists in a game) in NBA history. Westbrook achieved No. 182.

Westbrook’s coach in high school was Reggie Morris Jr., now the head coach at Fairfax.

“I think it’s a truly historic and legendary moment,” Morris said. “We always teach kids as coaches what can you do to impact the game other than scoring? The triple doubles show he impacts the game in more aspects than just shooting the ball.”

Big win for Chaminade

The four-year legacy of Chaminade guards Keith Higgins Jr. and Kevin Simpson Jr. will be long remembered. They picked up one of their biggest wins in knocking off Harvard-Westlake 66-54. It was Harvard-Westlake’s first Mission League defeat and pulled the Eagles into a first-place tie. Unfortunately, the Eagles then lost to Sherman Oaks Notre Dame on Friday night, putting Harvard-Westlake back into first place by itself and giving the Wolverines a chance to win a third straight league title.

Learn from Dave Kleckner

There’s no high school basketball coach better in teaching defense than Dave Kleckner of Etiwanda. His teams have never played a single second of zone defense, from freshman through varsity.

He offers some interesting insights how he gets his players to play defense and talks about how painful it was for his team to lose to Sierra Canyon in last year’s regional final.

Here’s the link.

City Section outburst

Kalib LaCount (right) scored 53 points last week.

(Michael Owen Baker/For The Times)

Some City Section teams finally started playing games. Narbonne went 2-0 and showed off quality players in senior Devean Williams and sophomore Marcus Adams.

King/Drew went 2-0 and unleashed junior guard Kalib LaCount, who scored 53 points in a win over Arcadia.

Grant is 5-0 behind junior guard Jeremiah Windham.

Crenshaw guard KJ Bradley has scored 38 and 28 points. It will be Bradley vs. LaCount on Friday at Crenshaw.

It’s still pretty clear that Westchester is the team to beat in the City Section, but the Comets will face Narbonne on Thursday and Fairfax on Saturday to give a better view where things stand.

Football

Orange Lutheran has hired former head coach and athletic director Rod Sherman to be its new football coach. For a school trying to stay competitive in the tough Trinity League, it’s probably a good hire. He had success coaching in Colorado after leaving the Lancers.

But it also puts a spotlight on the lack of diversity as far as head football coaches in the Trinity League. Since its inception in 2006, there never has been a Black head coach. And yet, many of the league’s top players are Black.

The league likes to find coaches who have ties to their schools, and it seems to me there has been more than enough time to find a former player qualified and ready to take over a head coaching position in the league. And yet, the progress has been zero.

Now JSerra also is looking for a new football coach after the resignation of Pat Harlow.

Here’s my column looking into the issue.

Westlake hired its first Black head coach by selecting Mark Serv`e, who spent 12 years as an assistant coach at Sierra Canyon.

Dean Herrington leaves for St. Francis

St. Francis has named Paraclete coach Dean Herrington as its new football coach. Somewhere, the late Jim Bonds is smiling.

Herrington, like Bonds, played quarterback at Hart High. He was a mentor of Bonds, who died of cancer last year. The two were great friends and collaborators and for Herrington to now take over a program that Bonds nurtured for the last 20 years is a home-run hire.

Herrington had success as a head coach at Alemany and Paraclete. He should fit in nicely with a veteran coaching staff that Bonds put together before his passing.

Asked what Jim would say about his hiring, Herrington said, “He’d probably be looking down on me, ‘Don’t mess it up.’” Herrington hopes St. Francis assistants want to stay. He’s worked with St. Francis QB Jack Jacobs for years and coached Jacobs’ father, Brian, in 1985 on Hart JVs.

Softball

Reagan Walsh, a senior shortstop at South Torrance High, poses after a May 6 game against El Segundo High

(Luca Evans / For The Times)

When Reagan Walsh was younger, batting practice with her dad John turned into a two-man play.

In the box, Walsh cast herself as Kelsey Bruder. Then as Megan Bush. Then as Michelle Moultrie and Kelsey Hornton and Aja Paculba and the rest of the 2011 Florida Gators softball lineup. She’d imagine her swing was theirs, that balls she hit over the fence added a run to Florida’s total on the scoreboard.

John, who fired off pitch after pitch with an arm that, a long time ago, led to his selection in the NFL Draft, wasn’t so lucky in the mind of his daughter.

“I was always the big, ugly Alabama pitcher,” John said.

Walsh, now a standout senior shortstop at South High in Torrance, has only ever wanted to play for one college team: Florida. She just knew. Her love for the program burned bright - so blindingly so that before she ever stepped foot on South’s campus, Walsh verbally committed as a Gator.

For a profile on Walsh, please go to this link.

Norco is rolling

Norco’s softball team is rolling along with an 18-1 record, 9-0 mark in the tough Big VIII League and a No. 1 state ranking.

In a 19-0 win over Corona, Mya Perez had three hits, including a home run. Stevie Hansen struck out 16 and didn’t allow a hit.

Soccer

Birmingham soccer coach EB Madha talks to team after 2-2 tie with El Camino Real on May 6, 2021.

(Eric Sondheimer)

It’s playoff time in high school soccer, which means teams are practicing penalty kicks. It’s the way to advance when regulation and overtime ends up in a draw.

The three elite teams in boys soccer are L.A. Cathedral, Servite and Birmingham. All three are working on penalty kicks in practice.

Here’s a look at the three teams’ preparation.

Here’s Southern Section updated boys’ soccer pairings.

Here’s Southern Section updated girls’ soccer pairings.

Volleyball

Two of the best high school football players from the spring, sophomore quarterback Nico Iamaleava of Warren and receiver Tetairoa McMillan of Servite, have traded their cleats for volleyball shoes and are launching kills and making blocks to lead their respective teams to success.

Iamaleava had 24 kills, six blocks and five aces in a match last week that gave Warren a league volleyball championship.

The Southern Section playoffs begin on Tuesday. Here’s the link to complete pairings.

Loyola is seeded No. 1 in Division 1 with Mira Costa No. 2. The first playoff matches for Division 1 are not until May 26. That gives lots of players a chance to compete this coming weekend in a big club tournament.

Tennis

Palisades won City Section boys and girls tennis championships under coach Bud Kling.

That’s championship No. 28 for the boys under Kling and the 12th in a row.

Golf

Ivan Barahona Jr. practices his putting at home.

(Ivan Barahona Sr.)

In the backyard of the Barahona family home is a putting green. Whether it’s morning or evening, when Ivan Jr. is practicing his putting, it’s also dream time. Like a baseball player fantasizing about a 3-and-2 count and with two out in the ninth inning of a tied World Series game, Barahona imagines making a putt to win the U.S. Open or the Masters.

“I’d say I have 10-footer and I need to make the putt to win,” Barahona said. “Most of the time I’ve made it.”

A junior at Encino Crespi who’s committed to Long Beach State, Barahona is looking forward to competing for a Southern Section individual golf championship next month. He won the Mission League championship as a freshman in 2019, then had golf was halted on him because of the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020.

Here’s a profile of Barahona, whose father used to be the basketball coach at Pacific Hills.

Baseball

There’s some surging baseball teams. Thousand Oaks is 21-0. JSerra has won 15 in a row. Orange Lutheran has won 13 in a row. Kaiser is 12-0. SO Notre Dame has won 10 in a row. Harvard-Westlake has won nine straight.

The regular season ends next week with two huge three-game series: Orange Lutheran vs. JSerra to decide the Trinity League championship and Notre Dame vs. Harvard-Westlake to decide the Mission League championship.

JSerra’s already strong pitching staff got a boost with the season debut on the mound of Luke Jewett, who struck out three in 1 1/3 innings against St. John Bosco. It means that JSerra will have four UCLA commits on the mound for the playoffs: Jewett, Gage Jump, David Horn, Eric Silva.

Thousand Oaks has hit 33 home runs as a team, with Max Muncy and Roc Riggio hitting eight apiece.

Baseball rankings

A look at the Times’ top high school baseball teams in the Southland:

Rank SCHOOL (W-L) Comment (last week’s rank)

1. THOUSAND OAKS (21-0) Lancers have hit 33 home runs (1)

2. FOOTHILL (20-3) Junior Aiden Taurek has 33 hits (2)

3. ORANGE LUTHERAN (21-2) 13 consecutive victories (3)

4. JSERRA (18-4) 15 consecutive victories (4)

5. HARVARD-WESTLAKE (18-4) Freshmen are coming through (5)

6. AYALA (17-1) Thomas Cerecedes is 7-0 with 0.51 ERA (6)

7. SHERMAN OAKS NOTRE DAME (19-5) Winner of 10 in a row (9)

8. HUNTINGTON BEACH (17-4) Oilers have gotten hot (16)

9. LOS ALAMITOS (14-4) Pitching is holding up (8)

10. SIERRA CANYON (16-3) Jaden Noot struck out 11 in shutout of Birmingham (10)

For the rest of the top 25, click here.

Granada Hills rises

Granada Hills baseball players before game with Birmingham on May 13, 2021.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Granada Hills has moved into position to win the West Valley League and earn the No. 1 seeding for the City Section baseball playoffs after a two-game sweep of defending City champion Birmingham.

The Highlanders are 16-2 and 6-0 in league. The difference and big edge Granada Hills has right now over Birmingham is better relief pitching. Birmingham opened leads of 7-1 and 5-0 in both games but was overwhelmed when the Highlanders rallied and took the lead. Granada Hills simply brought in closer Brandon Garfinkel, and the Patriots were finished.

Birmingham has won four City titles under coach Matt Mowry but no league titles, so perhaps the Patriots will be able to solve their pitching issues before the season ends, but for now, Granada Hills appears headed to a No. 1 seeding under coach Matt Matuszak.

From the archives

With Thousand Oaks unbeaten in baseball, it’s time to go back into the archives and look at the best player in Thousand Oaks history, Kurt Stillwell.

He sure could hit. He was taken as the No. 2 pick overall in the 1983 baseball draft by the Cincinnati Reds. His father, Ron, was the baseball coach at Thousand Oaks. His brother, Rod, would one day take over. Kurt liked fishing and baseball. That’s about it.

Here’s a fantastic 1992 story from Bob Nightengale on Stillwell joining the Padres and all about his personality and love for baseball.

Stillwell would stay in baseball after his retirement helping work with agent Scott Boras.

Recommendations

From the San Jose Mercury News on two top high school basketball programs in Northern California stopping their seasons because of COVID-19 protocols.

From Yahoo Sports on a high school softball player deciding to cut her hair out of concern for a national rule.

From Oregon Live, a story about a mother calling out mask rules after her daughter collapses at a basketball game.

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