Prep boys’ basketball rankings: Schools must get festive crowds for the playoffs
The playoffs are here, and that’s a grand thing for a lot of reasons, specifically this: There was no such postseason fun a year ago.
Remember the scene a year ago on the statewide high school front? Distance learning. No one on campus. No sports. No extracurricular anything. Everyone in a funk.
Flash to today. It’s not quite normal — when we’re fully mask free, then let’s talk real normal — but the Sac-Joaquin Section basketball tournaments that start this week present an opportunity to show up, to show out and to be seen and heard.
This column is an open challenge to rooting sections near and far to keep on attending games. Fill it up attendance-wise to encourage your charges to fill it up bucket-wise. It goes hand-in-hand. The basketball crowds for much of this region this season were robust. It was a welcomed view and sound.
But here’s the snag: The playoffs often result in a sudden plummet of student rooting-section members. The main reason is playoff tickets cost, including $6 for students. This isn’t to suggest the governing body CIF and its member sections are price-gouging. Not at all. In the regular season, students got into prep games for free with an ASB card — proof of being a student on campus.
Come playoff time, students have to pay for tickets. So what, six bucks right? That’s a lot for some and their parents. So here’s the second challenge with this column: School administrators, find a way to get your students into the playoff games, the games that matter most. Some, such as Jesuit and those within the Sierra Foothill League, often buy up playoff tickets for students and then dole them out.
Those schools want their students in attendance. The teams want their student peers as a backdrop. Every school hosting playoff games should flood the bandwagon. Make room in the spending budget and then back up why kids are in school in the first place: To learn and to experience the joys and perks of being on campus, such as attending sporting events.
Go to a Sheldon boys game, the regional power of the last decade, and you can’t hear yourself think. Blame the band. No, thank the band, a loud/proud group that is a staple to the Huskies.
Elk Grove Thundering Herd home games have picked up steam, punctuated by the rooting section: guys in pink shirts, various hats and plenty of loud verbiage. Same in Galt at Liberty Ranch for the red-hot Hawks. Same at Antelope, Folsom, Whitney, Oak Ridge, Grant, Burbank, Capital Christian. Same in the Foothill Valley League with Ponderosa, Placer, Lincoln, Oakmont.
Push the 500 max limit
On Friday, I checked out the Capital Athletic League boys’ finale between decades-long rivals El Camino and host Rio Americano. The signs on the door are what every regional school should strive for: SOLD OUT.
The place wasn’t overflowing, capped by the 500 maximum attendance allowed under current county health guidelines. El Camino brought its own rooting section to match wits with the rowdy Raiders rooters. It made for a great vibe, common all season throughout the region, because without students, without passion, without sound, it’s an empty and shallow setting.
The capped crowd isn’t going to stop for San Juan Unified Schools, or even those in El Dorado County. So push that 500 to the red. Get the fire marshal’s attention. That’s what happened in El Dorado Hills on Friday, where the top-ranked Folsom girls played host to their rival, second-ranked Oak Ridge. Our Cameron Salerno was there and reported it was a festive scene, a setting that pleased the coaches. Oak Ridge won a thriller. Folsom won the previous two meetings.
Steve White of Oak Ridge, in his 26th year leading the Trojans, is ecstatic that large crowds have come to watch the girls’ game. The girls has been worth a peek for fundamentals and entertainment value. White has advocated for big crowds. Now he has to keep that momentum going in the playoffs.
In 2010, his Oak Ridge girls won the CIF State Division I championship in Bakersfield. The student support was tremendous. They made the trek. White told me after that big victory that he offered extra credit to students if they showed up. They did. Find a way. The theme carries on all these years later.
“The environment was great,” White told Salerno of Friday’s game. “I thought it was unfortunate we couldn’t allow more than 500 people. If it was normal, this place would’ve been rocking and it would’ve been packed. You are talking about one of the best atmospheres in high school basketball. It’s still great, but it could’ve been so much better.”
So push the envelope. Make it a playoff run to remember, girls and guys.
Folsom’s girls 12 years ago struggled to even win league games, going 1-19 over a two-year stretch in the Sierra Foothill League. Now girls hoops is happening for the Bulldogs. The crowds are reflective of such. So keep it going. Be part of a championship chase.
“That’s what you want,” Folsom coach Lynn Wolking said of big crowds. “It shows value to the high school game. It’s going to continue to get better.”
The girls offer a full menu of teams worthy of following in the coming weeks, including Division I title contenders Folsom, Oak Ridge and McClatchy. Or in D-II with Vista del Lago, Laguna Creek, Del Oro and Vanden. And the smallest enrollment schools, which always seem to find a way to draw good crowds: Colfax, Bear River and right on down.
And the dudes?
For the boys, there is intrigue everywhere, so back it up with crowds. Can Bee No. 1 Inderkum win its first section championship under coach Fred Wilson, who worked championship magic at West Campus several seasons ago? With an 18-game winning streak and a Saturday night win over powerhouse Modesto Christian, why not, right?
Inderkum administration, get your students into those home playoff games because other local D-I title contenders such as Sheldon, Folsom and Capital Christian will. It’s all about competition. Who has the best teams, and who has the best crowds?
In D-II, can Ponderosa take its 27-0 record and cap it with a section championship behind its terrific 1-2-3 punch of Aaron Bliss, Casen Chaney and Nick Von Zboray? Ponderosa administrators, get those students with colored shirts and hard hats back in there as they have been all season.
Also in D-II, can defending champion Grant and classy coach Deonard Wilson repeat? Can Elk Grove make a D-II run with Ameere Britton and Dajon Lott? What about Whitney and its superbly coached group? What about Jesuit with the marvelous skills of 6-foot-7 junior guard Andrej Stojakovic, whom longtime teacher/coach/good guy on campus Greg Harcos calls, “The best player we’ve had here since Isaac Fontaine.”
Fontaine led the great Jesuit teams of the early 1990s and earned Cal-Hi State Player of the Year honors in 1993.
In D-III, can Burbank win a blue banner with scoring stars Isaiah Griffin and Omar Nesbit? Can El Camino win it with star guard Kiku Parker and big man Anthony Gutierrez, who sets the best screens around? What about Liberty Ranch in D-IV and its 1-2 star punch in Drew Fischer and Cody Smith? Or West Campus with the relentless and skilled Leo Wagner?
Go find out. In person. Be part of the vibe.
Editor’s note: The Sac-Joaquin Section will release its playoff brackets on Tuesday at 3 p.m. Joe Davidson and Will DeBoard of the section office will break down the brackets here: https://bit.ly/3uLEUeR.
THE BEE’S TOP 20
Girls
Records entering Monday
1. Folsom 23-2
2. Oak Ridge 20-5
3. Vista del Lago 23-2
4. Laguna Creek 21-2
5. Vanden 21-3
6. Del Oro 21-7
7. McClatchy 17-5
8. Christian Brothers 22-4
9. Colfax 24-4
10. Lincoln 24-2
11. Antelope 17-5
12. Cosumnes Oaks 19-7
13. Whitney 14-14
14. Granite Bay 15-12
15. Rocklin 11-12
16. Monterey Trail 17-8
17. Grant 17-10
18. Dixon 22-3
19. Marysville 20-5
20. Bear River 20-2
Bubble teams: Capital Christian 16-11; Davis 10-12; El Dorado 20-7; Forest Lake Christian 13-3; Highlands 19-2; Inderkum 14-12; Liberty Ranch 17-10; Pioneer 17-8; Placer 16-9; Rodriguez 16-7; Sacramento Adventist 22-5; St. Francis 14-11; Valley Christian 18-2; West Campus 9-0; Wood 13-9; Woodland Christian 20-6; Yuba City 15-7.
THE BEE’S TOP 20
Boys
Records entering Monday
1. Inderkum 24-1
2. Ponderosa 27-0
3. Sheldon 19-9
4. Elk Grove 21-5
5. Folsom 21-5
6. Grant 21-3
7. Capital Christian 17-9
8. Antelope 23-5
9. Whitney 21-7
10. Liberty Ranch 22-5
11. Jesuit 13-13
12. El Camino 20-8
13. Burbank 17-8
14. Vanden 15-12
15. Oakmont 18-8
16. Rio Americano 17-11
17. Lincoln 19-7
18. Placer 21-7
19. Sacramento 15-12
20. Oak Ridge 16-11
Bubble teams: Bella Vista 18-8; Center 17-8; Granite Bay 16-12; Marysville 23-4; Monterey Trail 11-15; Pioneer 19-7; Rocklin 14-14; Rodriguez 18-5; Roseville 15-13; Sacramento Waldorf 17-4; San Juan 15-9; Union Mine 21-7; Vacaville 18-7; West Campus 15-9; Western Sierra 21-5; Wood 18-10.