All-Star game last for Lewis

The 51st annual Orange County North-South 12th Grade All-Star Basketball Games Saturday will present three Laguna Beach High athletes a final opportunity to close out their prep careers.

The night also will mark the final prep basketball game coached by Laguna Beach girls’ varsity basketball coach Mark Lewis.

The 12th Grade All-Star Basketball Games for senior players, presented by the Orange Coast Optimist Club, is a doubleheader at Cypress College. The girls’ game tips at 5 p.m. and will be followed by the boys’ contest.

In the North vs. South girls’ game, Lewis, who recently announced that he is stepping down as head coach of the Laguna girls’ basketball program, will lead a South team that includes Breakers Jackie Cenan and Alex Lewis. In the North-South boys’ game, Laguna guard Darin Richardson is on the South team coached by San Clemente head Coach Marc Popovich.

“What an honor to have been selected to coach the South All-Stars,” Mark Lewis said. “What a great way to culminate this season and the end of my coaching career at Laguna Beach High School. We won league, went 20-8, had two school record-breaking performers in Alex Lewis and Jackie Cenan who were also among the leaders in Orange County, went to second round of CIF, and now Alex and Jackie are playing on the All-Star team and I am coaching. Pretty good script, I would say.

“I am so stoked about being able to coach them one last time before we all move on from our Laguna Beach High School careers. In addition, I have been blessed with the wonderful opportunity to coach some really great girls that comprise the South All-Stars...wow. Just a great experience all the way around.”

Jackie Cenan, the 2016 Orange Coast League Girls’ Basketball MVP, and Alex Lewis, a first-team all-league honoree, certainly made their marks in the Laguna Beach girls’ basketball program.

This year, Cenan averaged 19.3 points and Lewis 14.8 points per game. Additionally, Cenan ranked sixth in the county in scoring and finished her high school career as the school’s all-time career scoring leader (1,661 points). She averaged 18.6 points per game over her four-year varsity career. Lewis finished the season ranked 11th in the county in scoring and ranked No. 1 in the county (girls and boys) this season for three-point shots made (100). She finishes as the career leader in all three-point categories at Laguna for shots made in a game (10), season (100) and career (261). She also finishes as the program’s career leader in rebounds (860).

Saturday will be a busy athletic day for Cenan: she also is to compete that day at the Orange County Championships track and field event at Mission Viejo High.

Darin Richardson, an All-Orange Coast League Boys’ Basketball Team first-team selection, averaged 13.2 points a game and made 67 three-point shots in the 2015-16 season.

“Darin was our hardest worker in all phases of our program and he’s very deserving of his selection to the OC All-Star game,” Laguna boys’ basketball Coach Bret Fleming said.

Mark Lewis said the strength of his South squad is its size. He said six players stand over six-feet tall, the tallest at 6-foot-5 (Natalia Bruening of Corona Del Mar). The South also possesses the top two three-point shooters in the county in Alex Lewis and No. 2 Janessa Paredes of Beckman.

“As I am sure is true of the North squad, as well, this is an amazing group of young ladies,” he said of his South roster. “Not only are they talented ballplayers, they are great young adults and really nice people. They are a lot of fun. We have had some good fun not only with the basketball part of it but also just everyone getting to know each other. They are just super-fun and have a really good time being silly with each other. That’s a great part of this All-Star experience — meeting people with a mutual interest and skill and getting to know them outside the lines of the court. Expanded friendships.

“As with coaching any All-Star team, the challenge is in finding synergy between the players with limited time together. In some form of fashion, these players were the top performers on their high school teams and were relied upon to carry the load. Meshing all of them together and helping them realize that they can all rely on each other, is the challenge but also the fun.”

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•Lewis said his resignation as head coach of the Laguna Beach girls’ basketball program will be effective May 1.

He started with the Laguna program at the onset of the 2011-12 school year. He took over a team that lost two outstanding players to graduation in June 2011 as well as other players who left the program prior to the start of the 2011-12 season. The Breakers went on to endure an 0-18 campaign that year. Cenan and Alex Lewis, along with a few other players who Mark Lewis had coached in youth basketball, entered Laguna Beach High a year later. In the four years since that winless season, the Breakers posted records of 19-6 (third in Orange Coast League play), 19-9 (second), 15-12 (second) and this year went 20-8 and won a share of the Orange Coast League championship. The 2016 Breakers became the first Laguna team in 11 years and only the second team in the 43-year history of the program to win a league title.

In each of the last four years, Laguna qualified for the CIF Southern Section playoffs, reaching the first round in 2013 with trips to the second round the past three years. Lewis’ teams went 73-53 overall and 30-10 in league play during that four-year span, and his five teams were a combined 30-20 in league. He leaves with the most career wins in program history.

“Words cannot express enough how grateful I am for the opportunity to have coached Laguna Beach High girls’ basketball the past five years,” Lewis said. “I am so glad my daughter [Alex] was so insistent on me coaching her in high school. Through this experience, I have met a number a great coaches, referees, administrators and people affiliated with the game of basketball for whom I have the utmost respect and who have become good friends.

“I have also been afforded the opportunity to meet and coach some amazing young ladies along the way. The greatest blessing is that I have experienced a great deal of my daughter’s high school experience all from a court-side seat. I thank my daughter, Alex, for inviting me. Not many parents are fortunate to have that opportunity. Together, we have created memories that will last a lifetime.”

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Girls’ All-Star Basketball Game

South

Head coach: Mark Lewis (Laguna Beach High)

Roster: Jackie Cenan (Laguna Beach); Alex Lewis (Laguna Beach); Janessa Paredes (Beckman); Natalia Bruening (Corona del Mar); Maddy Bloom (Dana Hills); Jackie Bento (Edison); Ally Rosenblum (Mater Dei); Brooke Bigelow (Mission Viejo); Treasure Robinson (Ocean View); Elizabeth Garcia (Orangewood Academy); Katie Edwards (San Juan Hills); Suhansi Perera (Tesoro); Tristian Johns (Westminster); Elizabeth Sakamoto (Westminster); Sierra Vaglica (Woodbridge).

North

Head coach: Melissa Barajas (Sonora)

Roster: Reili Richardson (Brea Olinda); Shaye Uyematsu (Canyon/Anaheim); Haley Morikawa (Cypress); Nicole Larson (Esperanza); Sydney Sharp (Foothill); Melissa Martinez (Katella); Juanita Nolsco (Kennedy); Dani Iwami (Los Alamitos); Gloria Bates (Orange Lutheran); Gabrielle Carbajal (Rancho Alamitos); Patrice Sagiao Jones (Rancho Alamitos); Andrea Cristobal (Savanna); Marissa Dunn (Sonora); Rebecca Lazuka (Troy); Barbara Sitanggan (Troy).

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Boys’ All-Star Basketball Game

South

Head coach: Marc Popovich (San Clemente)

Roster: Darin Richardson (Laguna Beach); Michael Yee (Beckman); Wolfgang Schultz (Capistrano Valley); Amazon Nwoye (Capistrano Valley Christian); Mason Tufuga (Costa Mesa); Parker Romo (Dana Hills); Lucas Araujo (Foothill); Connor Stinson (Foothill); Charlie Stassel (Newport Harbor); Zamir Kelly (Ocean View); Gage Shelmidine (San Clemente); Dillon Waikle (San Clemente); Adrian Cruz (Santa Ana); Chandler White (Tesoro); Kiron Dey (University).

North

Head coach: Scott Snyder (Bolsa Grande)

Roster: Sebastian Waked (Bolsa Grande); Joe Galvan (Buena Park); Brad Belshe (Cypress); Elijah Mosham (El Dorado); Gerritt Beetstra (Fullerton); Gabriel Ganac (Garden Grove); Derrick Deese (Kennedy); Eyassu Worku (Los Alamitos); Mark Butler (Savanna); Abraham Mansaray (Savanna); Cameron Griffin (Servite); Semir Shafi (Troy); Sunny Garcia (Western); Isaac Douglas (Yorba Linda).