BASKETBALL PREVIEW 1990-91 : GARDEN GROVE LEAGUE PREVIEW : Galloway the Best Player, but Best Team a Tossup

With the returns in from all precincts, it appears the voters are divided on which team will win the Garden Grove League boys’ basketball title this season.

Garden Grove finished 11-12 (8-6 in league) last season, but it returns two all-league players in guard Mark Perry and center Bob Ioja.

“I like Garden Grove. On paper they should be the favorites,” La Quinta Coach Jim Perry said.

Coach Eric Hamamoto, whose Rancho Alamitos team is the defending co-champion with Kennedy and one of the standout squads again this year, shares Perry’s opinion.

“Garden Grove has to be easily considered the favorites,” Hamamoto said. “When you return four starters and two who were all-league, I don’t see how you can’t be.”

Well, sometimes you can’t when a team like Kennedy has a 6-foot-9 all-league center named Jermaine Galloway.

“You’ve got to give it to Kennedy,” Pacifica Coach Rhett Heckel said. “They’ve got the most dominating player in the league in Galloway.”

Clayton Olivier, the first-year coach at Los Amigos, agreed: “I think Kennedy is the team to beat because of Galloway.”

And what do Garden Grove Coach Dewey Van Cleave and Kennedy Coach John Mayberry think?

“I’m not going to make any predictions we’ll win league,” Van Cleave said. “But I’ll say we’ll definitely qualify for CIF (Southern Section playoffs).”

Mayberry puts his team third in league behind Garden Grove and Pacifica.

Here’s a team-by-team look:

BOLSA GRANDE

Coach: Tom Cardoza (third year).

1989-90 record: 8-15, 6-8 in league.

Returning lettermen: Three.

Returning starters: Two.

Top returners: Sy Sayareth (G, 5-7, Sr.); Din Le (G, 5-6, Sr.); Jim Fletcher (F, 6-2, Jr.).

Top newcomers: Robert Fierro (F, 6-4, So.); Vince Mitchell (F, 6-0, Jr.); Marcus Wilson (C, 6-1, Sr.).

Outlook: Sayareth, who was the sixth man last season, is off to a great start with 85 points in four nonleague games. He’ll have to keep pumping them in for Bolsa Grande to be competitive in league. But getting the ball off the boards and into Sayareth’s hands will be difficult. “Our biggest concern is our rebounding. We don’t have the size,” Cardoza said. Fierro is the hope for the future, but Cardoza said the lanky sophomore needs to beef up.

GARDEN GROVE

Coach: Dewey Van Cleave (sixth year).

1989-90 record: 11-12, 8-6 in league.

Returning lettermen: Five.

Returning starters: Four.

Top returners: Joe Aguirre (G, 5-10, Sr.); Bob Ioja (C, 6-3, Sr.); Mark Perry (G, 6-3, Sr.); Tim Vasser (F, 6-2, Sr.).

Top newcomers: Cornell Archer (F, 6-0, So.); Scott Flores (G, 5-10, Jr.).

Outlook: Van Cleave is counting on Perry and Ioja to turn the Argonauts into the championship club others have predicted they could be. Perry is off to a good start this season with 56 points in three tournament games. Archer, promoted from the freshman team, will start at forward, and Van Cleave said Aguirre has the makings of an all-league player. What can opposing teams expect from the Argonauts? “We’ll be a running team,” Van Cleave said.

KENNEDY

Coach: John Mayberry (14th year).

1989-90 record: 18-7, 13-1 in league.

Returning lettermen: Five.

Returning starters: Two.

Top returners: Jermaine Galloway (C, 6-9, Jr.); Rod Rosales (G, 5-10, Sr.).

Top newcomers: Vince Church (G, 5-9, Sr.); Brian Cline (F, 6-0, Sr.); Morgan Murakami (G, 5-10, Jr.); Robert Weber (C, 6-4, Jr.).

Outlook: Gone from the Fighting Irish lineup is forward Jim Barker, who last season carried he team with 22.6 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. Galloway is Kennedy’s best hope to replenish the lost production. Rosales had knee surgery recently and probably won’t be available until the second half of the season, if at all. “I need to find a replacement for him,” said Mayberry, who reached 200 victories at Kennedy last year and who has taken the team to the Southern section playoffs in 11 of his 13 seasons there.

LA QUINTA

Coach: Jim Perry (10th year).

1989-90 record: 2-21, 2-12 in league.

Returning lettermen: Five.

Returning starters: Three.

Top returners: Lloyd Bennett (G, 5-8, Jr.); Dusty DePree (F, 6-2, Sr.); Jon Ralston (F, 6-0, Jr.); Justin Sogoian (C, 6-4, Sr.); Stan Wada (G, 5-8, Sr.).

Top newcomers: Cal Daniels (G, 5-10, Jr.); Brad Huss (C, 6-4, So.); Ryan Miller (F, 6-0, Sr.); Chris Puente (F, 6-0, Jr.); Li Riopelle (F, 5-10, Sr.); Chap Yam (G, 5-7, Jr.).

Outlook: The once-mighty Aztecs are still in the early stages of a rebuilding program. Perry said an optimistic goal is a third-place finish, though fourth is more realistic. “Defensively we are OK,” Perry said. “We try to create a tempo to help our offense.” The points in Perry’s wide-open offense should come from Bennett, a second-team all-league selection last year, and Sogoian. Huss, who led the JV squad in scoring and rebounding last year, will provide much-needed height.

LOS AMIGOS

Coach: Clayton Olivier (first year).

1989-90 record: 1-20, 1-13 in league.

Returning lettermen: Four.

Returning starters: Two.

Top returners: Eddie Benson (G, 5-10, Jr.); Chris Blythe (C, 6-7, Jr.); Andy Frazier (G, 6-0, Sr.); Derrick Ragsdale (F, 5-10, Sr.).

Top newcomers: Raul Alvarado (F, 6-1, Sr.); Josh Cantu (F, 6-0, Sr.); Tim Clark (C, 6-6, So.); Mark Dillon (F, 6-2, So.); Brandon Douglas (C, 6-4, Sr.); Mike Hang (G, 5-8, Jr.).

Outlook: Olivier, a former all-league player for the Lobos, returns to Los Amigos to take over a team that finished in the cellar last season. One of his first moves was to dismiss senior forward Andre Roberson from the squad for disciplinary reasons. Without Roberson (10.4 rebounds per game last season), the Lobos have only two returning starters--Benson and Blythe. They will be complemented by Ragsdale, who has impressed Olivier with his defensive skills, Frazier and Alvarado, whom Olivier calls “an animal on the boards.”

PACIFICA

Coach: Rhett Heckel (fifth year).

1989-90 record: 12-12, 9-5 in league.

Returning lettermen: Five.

Returning starters: One.

Top returners: Kevin Gaughen (F, 6-5, Sr.); Scott Lesser (F, 6-1, Sr.); Larry Nagata (G, 5-9, Sr.); Brian Showalter (C, 6-6, Sr.).

Top newcomers: Don Choi (G, 6-0, Sr.); Brian Hachiwa (G, 5-7, Sr.); Tim Rouleau (G, 5-11, Jr.).

Outlook: The Mariners have lost three of their four nonleague/tournament games this season, but two of the defeats came against top-flight Brea-Olinda and St. John Bosco. “If we are intense defensively, we should be competitive with anybody,” Heckel said. The middle will be sealed by Showalter, who Heckel said is the best all-around player on the team. Offensively, Heckel has sharpshooting Gaughen (24.7 points per game this season, including 30 against Brea) and Nagata (22.0 average this season).

RANCHO ALAMITOS

Coach: Eric Hamamoto (second year).

1989-90 record: 21-4, 13-1 in league.

Returning lettermen: Two.

Returning starters: None.

Top returners: Eric Moore (C, 6-5, Sr.); Chris Singletary (F, 6-2, Sr.);

Top newcomers: Nervanah Phonexay (G, 5-10, Jr.); Matt Roberts (C, 6-5, Sr.); Luther Tolbert (F, 5-8, Jr.); Ulysses Trammell (G, 5-9, Sr.).

Outlook: Hamamoto is a bit short on experienced personnel, but he has a good group of players that should make the Vaqueros genuine contenders. One of the keys to Rancho’s offense will be how well Trammell, the tailback who led all county rushers with 1,548 yards this football season, runs the Vaqueros’ fast break. Moore and Singletary (200 pounds each) lend some bulk up front. Phonexay is averaging 23 points per game in nonleague games this year (he had 34 against La Habra) and is the team’s primary young gun. Defensively, Rancho will go with a full-court press. “It’s a style that I’ve always been happy with,” Hamamoto said.

SANTIAGO

Coach: Paul Anderson (fourth year).

1989-90 record: 8-14, 4-10 in league.

Returning lettermen: Three.

Returning starters: One. Top returners: Mike Carrasco (F, 6-0, Jr.); Con Nguyen (G, 5-6, Jr.).

Top newcomers: Juan Castro (G, 5-8, Jr.); Joe Huelskamp (F, 5-11, Sr.); Juan Soriano (C, 6-1, Jr.).

Outlook: Anderson faces the same predicament as last year--only one returning starter (Carrasco) and lack of height. “We’ll give people problems with our quickness,” he said. “This is one of the best shooting squads I’ve ever had. I have four or five guys capable of scoring 20 points on any given night.”

Saturday--Orange League.