Valley Team, Loaded With Aces, Is on a Roll <i> Before</i> Going to Las Vegas

High school basketball coaches dream of such lineups.

At point guard is Stephen Thompson, the City 4-A Player of the Year from City and State champion Crenshaw High.

The off-guard is 6-8 Sean Higgins, the City 3-A Player of the Year from City 3-A champion Fairfax.

At one forward is Trevor Wilson, the 6-7 All-American forward from Cleveland who will be one of the nation’s most wanted players next season.

The other forward is 6-9 Chris Munk from Riordan High in San Francisco, whose performances during the summer have elevated him to the sixth best player in the country, according to one scouting service.

At center is 7-foot Dwayne Schintzius from Brandon, Fla.

And those are just the top five.

The bench includes, among others, James Moses, the star freshman for Alemany last season, Don MacLean, the 6-8 sophomore-to-be from Simi Valley and Eric Bamberger, a 6-9 sophomore-to-be from San Francisco.

This gold mine of basketball talent has been molded together by Rich Goldberg, the president of the American Roundball Corporation in Sepulveda.

The team, called the ARC Mid Valley team, is currently playing in the 18-team Slam-N-Jam Invitational at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion. Mid Valley is using the tournament as a warmup for next week’s Las Vegas Invitational, considered one of the nation’s premier summer tournaments.

Thirty-two of the top teams around the nation and some 200 college scouts will be on hand in Las Vegas.

And the Mid Valley team will be one of the favorites for the title.

“We’ve had a past history of doing very well over there,” Goldberg said, “and we plan on doing it again this year.”

Goldberg’s ARC teams have played in Las Vegas seven times. One of his teams has won the tournament on five occasions.

There will be four ARC teams in Las Vegas, the Mid Valley, the San Fernando Valley team, the South Los Angeles team and the Ventura County team.

“One year, our teams took first, third and fourth,” Goldberg said.

The top five players on the Mid Valley team all recently attended a camp in New Jersey which brought together the best high school players in the nation. The invitation-only camp was sponsored by Nike. Higgins was one of only three sophomores to attend the camp.

Dwayne Bryant, 6-3 1/2 point guard from New Orleans, also participated in the camp. He will join the Mid Valley team in Las Vegas. Goldberg said Bryant will be a starter.

Bryant shouldn’t have trouble fitting in, if you listen to Schintzius. The 7-foot Floridian didn’t join the team until Wednesday.

“With the talent we have, it’s not tough to adjust,” he said. “We really don’t need to practice.”

One thing Schintzius did need help on was names.

When asked which of his teammates had impressed him, he said: “Trevor, because he handles the ball well; Munk because he’s so strong and the left-handed kid; he’s a good leaper.

“What’s his name?”

It’s Stephen Thompson, Dwayne.

Thompson is just one of the players who have impressed Pat Barrett, the former Mater Dei assistant who is coaching the team along with Goldberg. Of course, Barrett has been impressed with just about everyone.

“Right now with all the talent, there isn’t a lot of coaching you do, in regards to X’s and O’s,” Barrett said. “As a coach, you just hope the players play hard and are not selfish.”

Goldberg, who coached for seven years at Calabasas High, said: “It’s tougher some times to coach a team like this than an average team because you have so many good players. You need to get them together and run an offense. We’re struggling with that right now.”

Goldberg said that Wednesday, after his struggling team opened the tourney by defeating a team called Metro, 120-68.Thompson led the way with 35 points.

Before Thursday’s game, Goldberg was concerned because the opponents, the Westside Blazers, had been together for a longer period of time than the Mid Valley team. “That’s a big advantage they have on us,” Goldberg said.

Mid Valley won, 90-72, as Thompson scored 27 points.

Mid Valley plays the Pro-All Stars, an Orange-County dominated team, today at 3:40 p.m. The semifinals and final of the tourney are Saturday.

The most impressive performer besides Thompson Thursday was Moses, the 6-4 guard who has probably played his last game for Alemany.

“Playing with all the older guys helps to make me better,” said Moses, who scored 12 points.

Moses, who lives in Carson, said he and his parents still haven’t decided where he will play next year. But Moses did add, “I don’t think it will be Alemany.”

One person who is sure of his future--for the next three years--is MacLean.

The Simi sophomore also mentioned the benefits of playing with the top juniors and seniors.

“This is the best competition in California,” he said, “and the Vegas tournament is the best in the land. Compared to this, the Marmonte League is nothing.”