Prep boys’ basketball: ‘Stretch’ leads the charge for California’s lone unbeaten team
He’s 6-foot-10 with arms to the rafters.
He can pass, shoot inside and out and dribble, and his long strides allow him to cover the length of the floor in quick order. Aaron Bliss can also protect the rim as a defender when he isn’t snapping it as a thunder dunker. He leads the Sac-Joaquin Section in blocked shots, and he has a catchy and fitting nickname, all the more reason to catch his act at a gymnasium near you soon.
Say hello to “Stretch,” the big man marvel for Ponderosa High School, where life is good for the Bruins of El Dorado County.
“Stretch” has no limits but there are limitations. He has to fold and contort himself to climb into his 2009 Toyota Corolla, which didn’t come with a sunroof, but he is blissfully in his element on the court, with high ceilings to match his potential.
“Stretch, I love the nickname,” said Bliss, who is as polite and friendly as he can be in-game, determined and dominant. “I heard it so much for a while that I wasn’t sure what my real name was. It’s all fun.”
Bliss has been a focal point for his team’s 23-0 start. Ponderosa stands as the only team in the state with an unblemished record, which is something considering there are more than 1,300 high schools in the state.
In a game that has gone from an inside-out approach at all levels for decades to a more wide-open shooting approach — thank Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors, right? — Bliss serves as a reminder that big men with skills still fit right in. No one turns a tall kid away during the first day of conditioning if he do little bit of everything.
“And Stretch can do it all,” Ponderosa coach Clark Woods said. “He’s just a super talent, a great kid, and someone who wants to lead, to do well, to help his team win. “Stretch is a goofball, a clown, the one with corny jokes, and he’s a very caring person with a big heart. He’s the whole package, not just a player.”
But what a player. Bliss averages 15.7 points, is third in the section in rebounding with 13.6 a game and he averages 5.0 blocks a game. A 4.2-GPA student, it’s no wonder that the team captain is generating recruiting interest, including from Stanford. But the focus is on the here and now, and the Bruins have goals. They aim to become the first basketball team on a campus that opened in 1963 to win a section championship. The Bruins are already basking in the best start in school history.
Growing pains
The man who wrote a good part of the history at Ponderosa basketball is Terry Battenberg, who won multiple league championships at the school in the 1990s as head coach. He is retired from coaching, but he checks out regional games because he’s a junkie. He also has written books on post play, and he is a regional expert on the game, having either played or coached or studied it for nearly 60 years.
Battenberg has watched Bliss twice this season and will catch more games. He’s pulling for Stretch and his old school.
“He’s tall, he’s athletic, he has a nice shooting stroke, he’s unselfish, surrounded by good players, and he’s got a ton of potential,” Battenberg said. “He has a ways to go. All kids do at that age, but I like him a lot. I’d think colleges are thinking, ‘Boy, I’d like to get a hold of him, add some weight, watch him grow and develop.’”
Bliss endured his share of growing pains. He was the lanky, awkward big kid in elementary school with feet that felt too long and wide, adding to his coordination challenges.
“I was uncoordinated, and it was super annoying to not be able to do what the other guys could do,” Bliss said. “It made me realize even at a young age that I needed to work hard. I made the team as a kid because I was the tall kid. It didn’t mean I could play.”
Bliss added, “I also wanted to be versatile, to do a lot of things on the court. I had the height to be a post player but I wanted to expand my game to help the team even more, and it’s been awesome.”
Bliss said his coming-out party came during his sophomore season. Needing a big game to beat Bear Creek of Stockton, Bliss delivered with 19 points, 17 rebounds and six blocked shots.
“It was by far my best game of my life at that point,” Bliss said. “We won by three. Had I played like I was before, which wasn’t great, we would have lost that game. I knew then that I could be a good player.”
Growing up tall
Effort is also a key part of the Bliss package. In a game earlier this season against Elk Grove, Bliss was stripped while getting ready to post up, but he raced down court to block the ensuing shot.
“Incredible play and an example of how good Bliss is,” Elk Grove coach Dustin Monday said. “Our guys were buzzing about that. You love to see guys play like that.”
Said Woods, the Ponderosa coach, “We can win championships doing that sort of thing, of never giving up on plays.”
Bliss has no idea where he got his height from. His mother, Kiersten, is 5-7; his father Jonathan is 6-2. Bliss wears size-16 shoes, which means he could stamp out a grass fire in a pinch if needed. And he’s still growing. It’s not easy finding boat shoes for the super tall guys.
“I love being tall but it definitely has pros and cons,” said Bliss, one of five siblings and the oldest son. “It’s hard to fit in my car, a tight fit. I sleep on a small bed. Shopping, clothes, shoes are not easy. But there are so many more pros to being tall.”
Teammates for years, energized home games
That the bulk of the Bruins roster grew up together since elementary school adds to the brotherly bond. Ponderosa home games are an event. Students pack the rooting section for midweek and weekend games, sometimes wearing hard hats, as if to suggest that this is a team and star being built. Students cheer Nick Von Zboray’s 3-point shooting (he leads the team in scoring at 21.0 a game). They dig the assists and steals made by guard Casen Chaney.
And they roar every time Bliss hits a jumper, blocks or shot or dunks. There’s bliss in having Bliss on your side, in your school colors.
Bliss has formed a bond with his head coach. Woods grew up in Michigan and was a shooting guard at Sacramento State from 2005-08. Woods has coached at Ponderosa for five seasons, and he’s known Bliss since the lad was in fifth grade.
“I knew he’d be really tall and that he would be really good if he wanted to, and he did,” Woods said. “To see him come so far is so rewarding. It takes time for a player to believe in himself sometimes and he does now. He asks questions all the time. This game can be like chess, and he thinks 2-3-4 moves ahead, what to do, scenarios, and he’s so coachable. He’s got all the right stuff.”
An all-time area big?
Bliss isn’t the first big man to take the region by storm, just the latest. The area has featured big-man talents such as Mark Wehrle at Jesuit in 1969, coached by a 22-year-old Battenberg, the hoops lifer. Before that, there was Jim Eakins of Encina who played in the ABA and NBA, and later there was Bill Cartwright of Elk Grove, who won three NBA championships as the big man in the middle of the early Michael Jordan teams. Rich Manning of Center stood above his peers and landed in the NBA. Ryan Anderson of Oak Ridge played for years in the NBA, a 3-point threat.
Bliss is in this category of regional greats, sure to grow even more in bulk and skills and lore.
“He won’t be a post, a 5 in college, but he’s so versatile and skilled that he’d be a really good forward,” Battenberg said. “I like what I see for his potential. In the high school playoffs, he may take over games in the post when things slow down. Could be like when Ryan Anderson of Oak Ridge, a guy who could really play and shoot, started to take over inside (in 2005), and Oak Ridge won state. He couldn’t be stopped.”
Bliss likes the sound of that. He said he is having the time of his life, be it his Shakespeare class, tooling around in his car, head out the window, clowning with classmates or doing his thing in hoops.
“It’s all been super exciting for sure,” Bliss said. “I don’t want it to end.”