Prep Rally: The summer high school sports events you need to watch

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. My name is Eric Sondheimer. The 2022-23 high school sports season is officially completed. That means a busy summer is ready to begin. Let’s look at the big events to watch.

Let summer begin

For the first time, Southern California is hosting a CIF-approved, coaches-approved and NCAA-approved summer basketball event June 16-18 in Irvine for boys. Irvine, Beckman, Woodbridge, Estancia, Laguna Hills, Tustin, Mission Viejo and Crean Lutheran will be serving as sites. It allows college coaches to come out en masse to scout players playing for their high school coaches.

There’s also the Section 7 tournament the following weekend in Arizona.

David Rebibo, coach of defending state champion Harvard-Westlake, explained the value of participating in the tournaments: “It does two things. These are big events where you’re seeing some of the best teams around and you’re giving players a platform with structure and camaraderie to perform in front of college coaches. It’s a different vantage point for college coaches to evaluate players.”

It’s a big summer ahead for class of 2024 players trying to finalize college choices, such as Harvard-Westlake point guard Trent Perry.

It’s also an opportunity to see players who have switched schools and top incoming freshmen who have graduated from middle school and are eligible to play for high school teams.

Damien is supposed to be featuring a couple of freshmen to join 6-foot-11 returnee Nate Garcia.

Teams are paying $350 to participate. Ticket price, as set by the NCAA, is $10. Schools are also going to charge $10 for parking. The co-directors for the tournament are St. Margaret’s coach Chris Nordstrom and St. John Bosco coach Matt Dunn. The top games will be played at Irvine, Beckman and Tustin.

Here’s the link to purchase tickets.

Next year, the tournament will move to Northern California for a year.

There’s also a California Live for girls taking place June 15-17 at a 12-court Roebbelen Center in Roseville.

Transportation costs could cause schools not to go to Northern California. Sierra Canyon isn’t participating because coach Alicia Komaki said she doesn’t do summer competitions, preferring to let her players focus on travel basketball. Mater Dei and Etiwanda are expected to participate.

The War on the Floor boys’ tournament takes place June 8-11 at Burbank High.

Another summer basketball tournament to watch is the Fairfax tournament, which returns June 26 after an absence during the pandemic. Lynwood and top sophomore Jason Crowe Jr. will be among the teams.

Football passing tournaments return, with the best one set for July 1 at Edison. The Battle of the Beach includes St. John Bosco and Mater Dei. On June 10, El Rancho is hosting a large tournament.

Elijah Brown returns for his senior season at Mater Dei as a four-year starter at quarterback.

(Jerome Miron/Jerome Miron)

The Mission Viejo and Simi Valley tournaments will take place July 8, the Rio Mesa tournament July 15 and the Huntington Beach tournament July 22.

Lots of Southern Section teams are taking a mandatory two-week break in June and then playing competitions weekdays in July instead of participating in tournaments. City Section teams must declare a three-week dead period from May until the start of practices.

High school football practice begins July 31 for Southern Section schools that have zero week games and Aug. 7 for all others. City Section teams begin July 24 in shoes and shorts for three days before before switching to helmets and shoulder pads July 27. City teams are allowed to schedule scrimmages between Aug. 10 and Aug. 19.

The Valley Invitational Baseball League begins Monday and features 10 teams: Birmingham, El Camino Real, Castaic, Hart, Valencia, Westlake, Golden Valley, St. Bonaventure, Saugus and Royal. Games go through the middle of July.

The MLB All-American Game, featuring top baseball prospects for the class of 2024, will take place July 7 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle.

The MLB Draft will be held July 17-19 in Seattle. Three former SoCal high school players are projected as first-round draft picks: Paul Skenes (El Toro), Jacob Gonzalez (Glendora) and Jacob Wilson (Thousand Oaks).

The Area Code Games for baseball players will take place Aug. 6-11 at the University of San Diego.

Regional championships

Santa Margarita baseball players celebrate their 3-2 win over La Costa Canyon in the Southern California Regional Division I championship game on Saturday at Santa Margarita High.

(Nick Koza / For the Times)

The Southern California regional baseball championships saw Santa Margarita’s senior class celebrate with a 3-2 victory over La Costa Canyon in the Division I final.

Here’s the report.

In Division II, pitchers Jordan Kingston and Luc Olson came through in Calabasas’ 1-0, eight-inning win over Santana. In Division III, Westlake defeated Bakersfield Christian 3-1, giving the Marmonte League two regional champions. In Division IV, Anaheim Canyon defeated Crean Lutheran 6-5 behind strong relief pitcher from Bryce Solinger. In Division V, Castaic came away with a 7-6 win over Ganesha in nine innings.

For softball, Oaks Christian was beaten in the Division I final by Poway 1-0. Here’s the report. Corona Santiago won the Division II final 5-0 over El Capitan. Emily Delgado threw the shutout and also went 10 for 10 hitting during the regional games. Fullerton won the Division III title 7-0 over Otay Ranch as freshman phenom Malaya Majam-Finch showed she’s headed to stardom as a pitcher.

Luke Powell dominates

Luke Powell of Capistrano Valley Christian shot a 7-under-par 66 to win the CIF state golf championship at Poppy Hills.

(CIF)

Luke Powell of Capistrano Valley Christian concluded his high school career Wednesday with a CIF state championship in golf.

Powell shot a seven-under-par 66 at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach to win by two strokes over Joshua Kim of Concord De La Salle and Kush Arora of Amador Valley.

Powell, a UCLA commit, had an eagle on the par-five fifth hole and six birdies. He had one bogey at No. 17, a par three. Powell won the Southern California Junior Amateur championship last year.

Several local golfers will be participating Monday trying to qualify for the U.S. Open in a qualifying tournament at Hillcrest Country Club. It’s a 36-hole tournament and the top five finishes earn a spot in the U.S. Open at Los Angeles Country Club.

Here’s a story on a 13-year-old from Burbank will be teeing off in the tournament.

Courage to play

Aiden Bankowsi of Fillmore might be the smallest on a football but he’s ready to compete.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Fearlessness. Courage. Passion.

Those are the character traits immediately visible when watching senior Aiden Bankowski of Fillmore High participate with his football teammates.

Wearing a white bandana, white cut-off T-shirt and black shorts, Bankowski was at Simi Valley High on Saturday celebrating his 17th birthday during the start of summer football workouts that featured a seven-on-seven passing tournament and lineman competition.

He’s 4 feet 3, weighs 120 pounds and plays defensive line. He finally got to join the football team last season.

“I always liked football and finally got permission from my mom,” he said.

Born with a form of dwarfism, Bankowski also wrestles and used to play baseball and basketball. His positive outlook fits in perfectly with the vision of Fillmore coach Charlie Weis, who preaches the experience of having fun in the sport.

Here’s a profile.

Notes . . .

Senior third baseman Trent Caraway of JSerra has been selected the Gatorade state player of the year in baseball. . . .

El Toro has named Nate Williams its new seven on seven girls’ flag football coach. . . .

Al Gills has resigned as softball coach at Arcadia. . . .

Basketball player Curtis Williams of Etiwanda has signed with Pepperdine. . . .

Former Birmingham baseball and football coach Wayne Sink died on May 30. He was 87. He coached current Birmingham baseball coach Matt Mowry. . . .

Garfield has agreed to play Crespi at Crespi in a high school football game Aug. 25. . . .

Avery Drost has resigned as boys’ volleyball coach at Mira Costa. He coached the team to a Southern Section championship in 2021. . . .

Final transfer numbers are in for the Southern Section. There were 6,340 transfers for the 2022-23 school year compared to 6,064 last school year, an increase of 4.36%. . . .

EB Madha is out as boys’ soccer coach at Birmingham. The Patriots won their fifth City title this past season. “I appreciate the 22 years I had at Birmingham,” he said. “I will miss all the coaches I worked with.” . . . .

Omri Azarly has been named boys’ volleyball coach at Reseda Cleveland. He will also be the program head for boys and girls. Alex Barr has been promoted to girls’ head coach after being an assistant. . . .

Jake Melcer is the new girls’ volleyball coach at Estancia. . . .

Marisa Bubica is the new girls’ volleyball coach at San Pedro. . . .

Chris Morrison is the new athletic director at Verbum Dei.

From the archives: Lucas Gordon

Lucas Gordon in 2019 for Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. He was named Big 12 pitcher of the year for Texas in 2023.

(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)

Former Sherman Oaks Notre Dame pitcher Lucas Gordon was the Big 12 pitcher of the year for Texas this season. He was 6-1 in 12 starts with a conference-leading 2.48 ERA. In his NCAA tournament opener, he struck out eight, walked none and gave up five hits over seven innings in Texas’ 4-2 win over Louisiana.

Gordon lost out on much of his senior year at Notre Dame when the pandemic shut down high school sports in California from March on in 2020.

Here’s a story from 2019 when Gordon returned from elbow surgery.

Here’s a look at Gordon in 2020 when he participated in The Times’ series Season Interrupted.

Here’s video from 2020 of all 11 Gordon strikeouts against Chaminade in what proved to be his final high school game.

Recommendations

From Jaysjournal.com, a story on former Huntington Beach baseball standout Hagen Danner.

From the Washington Post, an opinion piece on high school girls wrestling.

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