CIF-SS Small Enrollment Division
Preview:
Westside League 2001-02--(Nov. 11, 2001)
| WESTSIDE LEAGUE Highland Hall Hillcrest Christian/ GH Hillcrest Christian/ TO Milken Community Santa Clarita Christian West LA Baptist West Valley Christian |
The Westside League is an amalgamation of religious-oriented schools (like you needed us to tell you that after looking at the names of the schools in the league), and while most teams fall have historically been placed in V-AA or V-A, Milken's enrollment has put them for the past few years in Division IV-A, where they've had the pleasure of seeing Crossroads and St. Monica's and other tough teams during the playoffs. And while Milken had a tremendous team a few years ago, which wound up just a few points short of dethroning the reigning CIF IV-A section champion Crossroads, the Milken Wildcats are two years down the road from that experience, and return only one player from that squad, Jon Milgrom. Granada Hills Hillcrest Christian last year won the league title and came within a game of going to the Division V-AA section finals after defeating Buckley, but came up short against eventual section champion Calvary Chapel Downey. This year, it's a bit hard to say who will have the best chance at a league title, because while Milken returns a lot from last year's team, and GH Hillcrest graduated most of it's roster, not a lot is really known about many of the other teams in the league. But from where we're sitting, this one could come down to a battle of the point guards, with Milken and Milgrom and GH Hillcrest and Alex Martino being the most prominent returning players among the seven teams in the league. The biggest question is whether they'll have the necessary supporting cast to make a difference, and whether league success can be translated into playoff success in the newly revised brackets that we're expecting to see during this year's playoffs. Of course, only time will tell. . . .
What follows is what we know about the teams thus far this season, which means we're looking at old rosters and trying to predict who will be returning and which younger players will be stepping up. The schedules are accurate as far as we know. We encourage coaches to send us their official rosters (via e-mail, not on the message board, please) and any other information about their teams so we can update the previews and rosters as the season progresses.
| Westside League Rosters | Westside League Schedules |
| Hillcrest Christian Granada Hills--12-0, 17-3 (1st) Here's the list of players we'd expect to see returning from last year's team: Brett Urie 5'-10" Jr. G GH Hillcrest graduated 7 players, and the only returning starter will be Alex Martino, a good ball-handler and shooter. The rest of the team will have to step up and they'll have to bring some players up from jv who have a chance to help given the losses to graduation. They should still be competitive, but whether they can equal or exceed last year's successes, is an open question at the moment. They'll only be playing in one tournament (Fillmore) according to the CIF official schedule (right), so whether they'll see the level of competition they'll need to prepare for the kind of competition they'll see in playoffs is another question that only time will answer.
|
Hillcrest Christian/ Granada Hills Coach: Joshua Kendrick D 04 @ *Highland
Hall |
| West L.A. Baptist--8-4, 13-6 (2nd)
"Dolphins" West LA Baptist Jasper Barnum 5'-5" So. G |
West LA Baptist Coach: Leo Surratt N 26 New Roads |
| Hillcrest Christian Thousand Oaks--8-4, 9-8 (3rd)
"Saints" We'll be candid. We don't know a thing about this team, except for the schedule provided to us by the CIF (right). If anyone has a current roster, send it in. They were one of a handful of teams which qualified for the playoffs with an overall losing record, i.e., they didn't achieve the minimum number of wins but qualified based on the order of league finish. |
Hillcrest Christian/ Thousand Oaks Coach: TBA N-28/D-1 @ Laguna Blanca Tourn |
| Milken Community--7-5, 8-11
(4th) "Wildcats" Here's the list of players expected to play this year for the Wildcats: Jonathan Milgrom 5'-10" Sr. PG Unfortunately, we don't have a schedule for Milken (one was evidently not provided to the CIF, and they in turn didn't have one to pass along). However, you can pretty well figure out who Milken is playing by looking at the rest of the league schedules, and we've attempted to reconstruct their schedule on that basis.
|
Milken Community Coach: Mike Whiting No schedule available from CIF D 18 @W Hillcrest Christian TO |
| Santa Clarita Christian--5-7, 11-10 (5th)
"Cardinals" Players expected to return for the 2001-02 season include: James Grayem 6'-4" Sr. C Here's a blurb we received from someone we believe to be a fan: "The team should challenge for the league title, especially since Dennis and Arrieta are the only newcomers. They defeated rival Hillcrest Granada Hills twice by ten and eleven in the LAB summer league."
|
Santa Clarita Christian Coach: Larry Sulham N 27 Grace Brethren |
| Highland Hall--1-11, 3-17 (6th) We have no idea who is on this roster. Highland Hall didn't make the playoffs, not with only one league win and two wins outside of league and if they have that kind of year again, they won't be making much of an impact. The schedule at right is from the CIF-SS office. |
Highland Hall Coach: Humberto Ramirez N-29/D-1 @ Providence TournD 04 *Hillcrest Christian/GH 13 @ *Hillcrest Christian/GH J 07 @ *Santa Clarita Chr 08 *West Valley Christian 11 @ *West LA Baptist 15 *Milken Community 22 *West LA Baptist 25 *Santa Clarita Chr 29 @ *West Valley Christian 31 @ *Milken Community F 01 Lighthouse Christian 05 Shalhevet |
| West Valley Christian--1-11,
2-13 (7th) West Valley was the only team in league which performed less successfully than Highland Hall, and like HH, we have no idea who is on this roster. The schedule at right is from the CIF-SS office. |
West Valley Christian Coach: Tony Shaw N 28-30 @ Laguna Tourn |
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