Prep Rally: Witness something you may never see again

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. History was made this weekend in the Open Division for the Southern Section and City Section and it might not ever happen again.

The no transfer champions

Robert Hinton gets celebration hug after scoring 15 points in Harvard-Westlake’s 54-47 Open Division championship win over Roosevelt.

(Steve Galluzzo)

Harvard-Westlake and King/Drew won Open Division championships in boys’ basketball with ZERO transfers. Do you know how astounding that is at the highest level in this era of transfers?

It should be celebrated. Two coaches, David Rebibo and Lloyd Webster, took who showed up as freshmen, developed the players, convinced parents to stick it out through good and bad and ended up hoisting trophies.

Here’s a column celebrating the achievement offering an alternative path forward during an era where there could be nearly 17,000 sports transfers in California for the 2023-24 school year.

Basketball rewind

King/Drew outlasted LACES to win the City Section Open Division title for boys. Here’s the report.

Birmingham guard Annette Jones tries to avoid a block by Westchester’s Mariah Blake during the Patriots’ victory in the CIF City Section Open Division girls’ basketball championship game at Pasadena City College on Feb. 24, 2024.

(Steve Galluzzo / For The Times)

Birmingham held off Westchester to win the City Section Open Division title for girls. Here’s the report.

Harvard-Westlake won its first Southern Section Open Division boys title. Here’s the report.

Etiwanda turned in a dominating performance to win the Southern Section Open Division girls title over Sierra Canyon. Here’s the report.

Mercy Miller of Sherman Oaks Notre Dame gets dunk in Division 1 final against Windward.

(Dylan Stewart / 1550 Sports)

There were lots of champions crowned Saturday, led by Sherman Oaks Notre Dame in Division 1 boys. Here’s the report.

St. Anthony won boys and girls championships in 2AA and will try to do the same in the regionals.

Historic game

There was a historic inflection point taking place in high school basketball last weekend that has been more than 50 years in the making.

Since Marques Johnson led Crenshaw to the 1973 City Section championship, a group of powerhouse teams, coaches and players have dominated.

The legendary coaches such as Willie West (Crenshaw), Dave Yanai (Fremont), Reggie Morris (Manual Arts), Ed Azzam (Westchester), Harvey Kitani (Fairfax) and Derrick Taylor (Taft) were fortunate to be part of programs that produced such standout players as Johnson, John Williams (Crenshaw), Ivory Ward (Fremont), Kevin Ollie (Crenshaw), Dwayne Polee (Manual Arts), Chris Mills (Fairfax), Jordan Farmar (Taft), Larry Drew Jr. (Taft), Trevor Ariza (Westchester) and many more.

Here’s your history after King/Drew faced LACES for the Open Division championship.

Baseball

Left-hander Dylan Volantis of Westlake is 6 feet 6 and committed to USC.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

What a start in baseball for 7-0 Westlake. The Warriors’ pitching has been great. From Dylan Volantis striking out 10 and then 11 batters in his first two starts to Jesse Beer throwing a perfect six-inning game, retiring all 18 batters he faced, Westlake has shown after winning a Division II regional title last season that it’s ready for another title run at a higher division. Even more impressive is that coach Wally Barnett has survived seven years as head coach at a school that runs through coaches quickly.

Mission League play begins this week, and that could be trouble for opponents of Harvard-Westlake as it unveils its exciting one-two pitching punch of Duncan Marsten and Thomas Bridges with Bryce Rainer as the closer in a series against Sierra Canyon. It’s the way the Wolverines will look when the Division 1 playoffs come around. Don’t expect many losses with that rotation during the regular season.

Orange Lutheran (5-0) continues to play a magnificent schedule featuring one top opponent after another in preparation for the Trinity League, where all six teams are in The Times’ top 25 rankings. There’s No. 2 Orange Lutheran, No. 8. JSerra, 10. Servite, No. 11. Santa Margarita, No. 12 Mater Dei and No. 17 St. John Bosco.

Corona Centennial (5-0) is looking like the strongest contender to Corona (3-0) in the Big VIII League. Centennial, Servite (5-0) and La Salle (6-0) all won tournaments last week. Westlake won the Easton tournament championship over El Camino Real.

Softball

Garden Grove Pacifica is headed to Arizona for a big tournament after knocking off Los Alamitos 5-2 to go to 3-0.

Granada Hills won the Cypress tournament championship and is unbeaten.

Norco is off to a 3-1 start.

A rising team is Murrieta Mesa, which is 5-0 with wins over Orange Lutheran and Roosevelt. Victoria Prado has eight hits in 14 at-bats.

Soccer

Carlos Ruano (10) of Birmingham celebrates after Adrian Diaz scores on a penalty kick in second half vs. ECR in City DI final won by Birmingham 2-0.

(Craig Weston)

Emotions got out of control at the conclusion of Birmingham’s 2-0 win over El Camino Real at the City Section Division I boys championship. There was a fight at the conclusion and both schools were removed from regional soccer playoff consideration this week.

Here’s the report.

Mater Dei boys and Corona Santiago girls won Open Division championships for boys and girls in the Southern Section.

The Southern California Regional playoffs begin this week. Here’s the pairings.

Track

Running back/sprinter Brian Bonner of Valencia began his spring track campaign with a 10.87 time in the 100 meters.

Long Beach Poly had some fast times at its relays.

Lacrosse

There are continuing signs of athletes getting better in lacrosse in Southern California, and that can be seen in players heading east to play college lacrosse.

On Yale’s roster are three Southern California natives: Cole Jackson from St. Francis, Carson Kuhl from Westlake and Brad Sharp from Palos Verdes.

Foothill came up with a big early season win over Loyola last week.

Honoring best of best

On Sunday in Agoura, the San Fernando Valley Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Football Hall of Fame will hold its annual banquet honoring the top student athletes from football teams in the area. There will be close to 60 honorees. Simi Valley coach Jim Benkert, with help from local coaches, has resurrected the program after it had stopped during the pandemic troubles.

The list of honorees and their accomplishments is always something to enjoy. There’s so many future stars to be found on and off the field. From grade-point averages above 4.0 to athletes volunteering to help others, it’s a list to remember.

Notes . . .

Leslie Aragon is leaving Orangewood Academy next month as girls’ basketball coach and athletic director. . . .

Defensive coordinator Alex De Giacomo has been promoted to head football coach at Westminster. . . .

Junior baseball player Lucas Owens of Santa Margarita has committed to Ohio State. . . .

Mira Costa won the Redondo Union boys’ volleyball championship with a 21-25, 25-21, 15-10 victory over Huntington Beach. . . .

Basketball standout Mackenly Randolph of Sierra Canyon has committed to Louisville. . . .

Walnut won the state championship in girls’ wrestling, led by Anaya Falcon, a three-time state champion. . . .

Henry Aslikyan of Birminghanm won the state 106-pound wrestling title, earning Birmingham its first individual state title. He was 43-1 this season. . . .

Junior Jackson Tyler of Chaminade has committed to San Diego State for baseball. . . .

Standout junior linebacker Noah Karim Mikhail of Bonita put on his own football camp for youth players last weekend.

“For the kids,” he said.

He gets it — he’s a player to watch on and off the field in 2004 and beyond.

From the archives: Cody Schrier

Junior Cody Schrier of JSerra, a UCLA commit, takes over as the starting shortstop after being a second baseman the last two seasons. It’s part of the JSerra tradition of a top player waiting for the chance to play shortstop.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Former JSerra shortstop Cody Schrier is finally healthy for UCLA, so beware. Injured last season, Schrier went seven for 12 with a home run and two RBIs in his opening three-game series against Gonzaga.

Here’s a 2020 story about Schrier taking over at shortstop at JSerra.

Here’s a 2021 story about Schrier leading a talented JSerra team.

Recommendations

From The Athletic, a story on whether Bronny James is ready for the NBA.

From the Harvard-Westlake school newspaper, a story on former Wolverine Alyssa Thompson.

From the Orange County Register, a story on Tersoro’s top boys’ golf program.

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