Boys’ basketball preview: Sheldon reloads, starts season top-ranked in Sacramento area
Twenty years in, he’s still pushing the broom before practice.
That’s Joey Rollings in his element, inside the Sheldon High School gymnasium, his home away from home. Here, the laboratory for crafting another championship contender must have a clean surface in which to conduct drills, to run the floor, to stop-and-start on defense, the trademark for this region’s elite boys’ basketball powerhouse of this era.
Earlier in Monday night’s practice, it was Rich Manning who pushed that broom as players stretched. Nothing is beyond the simplest chores for this veteran coaching staff that includes Rollings, Manning, Mike Bradley, Rich Viano-Nitschke and Brandon Gouveia. Manning played in the NBA. He doesn’t need to push a broom.
But he does.
“We all chip in!” Manning said with a laugh the reverberated off the walls.
The all-in mantra has been a staple for the Huskies of the Elk Grove Unified School District, a place where hoops became a thing as soon as the school opened in 1997. A native of Canada, Rollings won state championships in Arizona, earning $12,000 a year, and moved to a bigger state and a bigger city with bigger challenges and larger paychecks in in the early 2000s. He won a CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division I banner with the Sheldon girls in 2006 and was then urged by then-boys coach Scott Gradin, now the athletic director at nearby Pleasant Grove, to take charge of the boys’ program.
“Best coach in the area,” Gradin said then and now.
With Rollings preaching and demanding the core fundamentals of sharing the ball and defending with all manner of fire, Sheldon has overflowed its trophy case. For decades, area large-school basketball teams simply did not talk out loud of winning section banners or even Northern California championships because it so rarely happened, with Jesuit taking a few here and there.
Manning was The Bee’s Player of the Year in 1988, and his Center Cougars were top-ranked by The Bee. They had their unbeaten season derailed in the early rounds of the section playoffs. In 1983, Bradley was a key cog for a 33-1 Highlands team that won section D-I honors but were bounced in the first round of the NorCal playoffs.
“It was so hard for our teams to win in the NorCals then,” Bradley said. “We’ve got a culture here of defense, and that’s carried us to new heights.”
Since 2007, the Huskies have reached 10 section Division I championship games, winning seven. Sheldon won the CIF NorCal Division I championship in 2012, and since 2013, it has reached five CIF NorCal Open Division title games — the big boys — and won three of them.
Actually, Sheldon won NorCal open crowns in 2018 and 2019 and was in the 2020 title game against Bishop O’Dowd, but the game was called off when the pandemic swept in. The CIF then declared O’Dowd and Sheldon co-champions.
Regardless, it’s a heck of a run with a lot of legs left to extend it. Sheldon bounds into this season top-ranked by The Bee, backed up by Cal-Hi Sports, which has ranked basketball teams across the state for more than 40 years.
“Basketball is big here, and we have a good team that we think can make a state-title run,” junior guard Josiah Johnson said. “I know I’m ready.”
He’s ready because he’s been largely on hold. Johnson has not played a prep game in seven months due to torn cartilage in his knee. He vows to be as good of a guard stopper as there is in the region. Sheldon practice sessions are intense. Everyone wants a piece of the action.
“I love playing defense,” he said. “That sets the tone for any game. I used to watch Sheldon as a 9- or 10-year old. I enjoyed it more than watching NBA games.”
The core of this Sheldon group has grown up together, dominating on the lower levels. The spring season was a blur amid COVID testing, stop and starts and a shortened schedule in which Sheldon went 4-6. There were no playoffs.
Rollings hands out masks before drills even now, just like in the spring. He is not sure what the district policy will be for players during games — masks or no? — and how many fans will be allowed. This is the same theme shared by other coaches in the region.
“All but four of our players have been vaccinated,” Rollings said. “I’d like them all to be vaccinated but that’s up to the parents. I know that if we get one kid with a positive test, he’ll sit out 10 days, and that would hurt in the playoffs.”
There is also this: unvaccinated people are not allowed in some gyms across the state, and the Huskies have a statewide schedule. This policy also rings true at Golden 1 Center, home of the Kings and the CIF State Championships.
‘We’ve shrunk, so we have to play defense”
Huskies players wear practice uniforms that read, “Big Dawg,” and that reflects the effort more than player size. That’s where on-ball defense, boxing out and help defense are a must, or players sit next to the coaches on the bench and watch others defend.
Sheldon’s deep roster includes 6-foot-4 forwards Rashaud Bradley and Donovan Morgan and 6-6 frontcourt man Marcelius Franklin. Sheldon’s strength during for its title teams was the defense of perimeter players, and there is an abundance of quick and active guards now in Johnson, Devin Haynes, Tyrece Daniels and Troy Crighton. All are under 6-foot.
“We’ve shrunk and there are no more 6-10 guys out here,” said Manning, Sheldon’s 6-10 assistant. “So we have to play defense, and that’s allowed us to compete and succeed over the years.”
Sheldon opens the season against Cal-Hi state-ranked No. 2 Centennial on Friday and No. 30 Fairfax on Saturday. The Gridley Invitational is a NorCal showcase from Dec. 9-11, and the national tournament Tarkanian Classic runs Dec. 17-21.
Twenty years in, and Rollings has no visions of stepping down. There is more work to be done, more teams to mold, more floors to sweep. He appreciates all of it. A year ago, he was hit with COVID. Lost his sense of smell the day before Thanksgiving. It’s all ancient history now.
“Time flies,” Rollings said. “We’re proud of what we’ve done. We’ve built a good program. People like to watch us play. They expect good games. We expect to be in the section finals every year, to compete for state championships. We can get there again.”
The Top 10
Jesuit finished the spring season 16-0 and ranked No. 1 by The Bee, and the Marauders can speak of basketball excellence with 11 section championships in 18 title-game appearances and two NorCal crowns in nine title-game appearances and seven Bee Players of the Year, the first coming in 1969.
Rivals with Sheldon in the Delta League, Jesuit this season is paced by versatile forward Andrej Stojakovic, leading rebounder Kai Wallin and guards Ahjani Lewis and Jayden Teat.
No. 3 Elk Grove also hails from the Delta League and returns two anchors in guard Ameere Britton and forward/center Dajon Lott. No. 4 Vanden is the early favorite to win section D-III honors behind forwards/wings Takaei Emerson-Hardy, Ahsan Huff and Tyler Thompson.
No. 5 Folsom graduated Bee spring 2021 Player of the Year Jaylen Wells but returns forward Brycen Shackelford and guard Joaquin Battle. No. 6 Grant is led by forward Jordan Bobo, guard Jayson Matthews.
No. 7 Sacramento is paced by forwards Luca Davis and Ben Rosenborough.
The Bee’s Top 20
With spring records
1. Sheldon 4-6
2. Jesuit 16-0
3. Elk Grove 10-1
4. Vanden 10-3
5. Folsom 11-2
6. Grant 7-3
7. Sacramento 4-7
8. Capital Christian 12-2
9. El Camino 9-9
10. Burbank 6-2
11. Inderkum 7-2
12. Rocklin 10-6
13. Whitney 6-3
14. Granite Bay 7-10
15. Woodcreek 13-3
16. Oakmont 15-5
17. Ponderosa 7-1
18. Franklin 3-7
19. Cosumnes Oaks 5-4
20. Antelope 15-5
Bubble: Bradshaw Christian 9-5; Center 7-5; Christian Brothers 6-10; Davis 5-5; Del Campo 8-4; El Dorado 10-5; Lincoln 9-5; Natomas 9-1; Pioneer 7-2; Placer 9-8; Rio Americano 7-8; Sacramento Adventist 10-5; Union Mine 8-2; Vacaville 8-2; Valley 5-0; Wood 7-4. - Joe Davidson, jdavidson@sacbee.com