IRVINE — Orange County — specially, as we residents like to refer to it as, “the South County” — will serve as the hot spot for the California high school boys’ hoops scene this weekend.
The first-ever “Cali Live Tournament”, organized and run by the Southern California Interscholastic Basketball Coaches Association, will play host to an expected 163 high school teams.
On those players who still have eligibility running on their “only four years, once you step foot into a classroom as a freshman ” high school competition clocks permitted to participate.
Most of the high-profile California programs are participating, with Southern California’s notable exceptions being Mater Dei (Coach Gary McKnight and his players are in Hawaii this weekend) and Sierra Canyon (which didn’t register before the deadline to participate).
St. Margaret’s Coach and event director Chris Nordstrom, and a SCIBCA crew too vast to mention by name (but they know who they are), have modeled Cali Live after the highly successful Phoenix-based Section 7.
When the NCAA opened a second “live period” for its membership programs’ coaching staffs to attend and “evaluate”, in-person, high school players, it opened the door for a California-based counterpart.
Approximately 70 California programs — including Mater Dei and Sierra Canyon — will be in Arizona next weekend as part of a contingent of elite programs not only from all of the west but powerhouses from Miami (Columbus High, led by Class of 2025 standouts Cameron and Cayden Boozer) and New Orleans (Newman).
Since there is no mega-stadium to play host to all of the teams and games (ala the Phoenix Cardinals’ stadium, which houses the entire Section 7), Cali Live games will be spread over 10 brackets and nine high school campuses.
Irvine High serves as the Cali Live headquarters, with the gymnasiums at Tustin, Beckman, Woodbridge, Crean Lutheran, Estancia, Mission Viejo, San Juan Hills and Laguna Hills also in use over the three days.
Daily admission is $10 and can only be purchased via the GoFan.com app.
And many of the campuses are expected to charge to park (also 10 smackers).
Games tip off at noon on Friday, with the 10 brackets’ championship games all held at Irvine High on Sunday, starting at 9 in the morning with the “BallerTV” division, where Pacifica Christian and Orange Lutheran sit on opposite sides of the bracket.
Pacifica Christian edged the Lancers in the 2023 State Southern Regional D-II finale.
State 2023 Open champ Harvard-Westlake, with returning starters from the 33-2 team in guard Trent Perry and forwards Robert Hinton and Nik Khamenia, sits atop the SoCal Chevy Division and will open Friday at Irvine High at 5 p.m.
Coach David Rebibo’s Wolverines will take on an opponent (Crean Lutheran) not playing far from its campus.
The Saints are anchored by a dynamic Class of 2026 backcourt in Kaiden Bailey and Braeden Davidson.
Three programs likely to join Mater Dei as prime challengers to Harvard-Westlake in CIF Southern Section and State regional competition in 2024 also figure to have a lot of college coaches watching them this weekend.
*St. John Bosco (with key returnees in seniors-to-be Jack Turner and Amiri Meadows, and underclassmen Elzie Harrington, Kade Bonam and Brandon McCoy) heads the Chevy Silverado division and opens with Palo Alto, in Irvine High’s auxiliary gym, at 3:45 Friday.
Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks, California’s D-I champion, will be led by senior-to-be Mercy Miller, a standout last season and (like Harrington) one of the better guards at the June 4-6 Pangos All-American Camp in Las Vegas. The Knights are in the lower half of the bracket.
The Knights will be challenged by University High (from) San Francisco, also in Irvine’s aux gym, at 6:30.
*Corona Centennial — the ’21-’23 CIF SS Open winner l before losing to Harvard-Westlake in the regional final in March — returns just one starter.
But he’s a good one: 6-foot-4 Eric Freeny, a heavily recruited senior-to-be (UCLA and USC are among the programs in pursuit) and spring standout for the Compton Magic 17s squad.
And Coach Josh Giles’ Huskies have been joined by one of the best forwards in the country, 6-9 Carter Bryant, a transfer from Sage Hill who plans to sign with the University of Arizona in November.
They’re in the Advocates4Athletes division that may be, top to bottom, the strongest of the divisions.
The Huskies’ first opponent is Fresno’s San Joaquin Memorial (the 2023 State D-II champion), with the game tipping in Tustin’s main gym at 6:15.
St. Joseph of Santa Maria, led by California Sophomore of the Year Tounde Yessoufou and the State Open runner-up last March, is in the lower portion Centennial’s bracket and faces Redondo at 4 o’clock in Tustin’s aux gym.
*The Steve Singleton-coached Eastvale Roosevelt team lost to Heritage Christian in the CIF SS Division I second round to finish 23-7.
The Mustangs return an all-CIF guard in 6-3 Darnez Slater. And no one in the event will have as impressive a group of “newcomers”, via transfers Brayden Burries and Isaac Williamson (sidelined last season after transferring from Riverside Poly); Myles Walker (JW North) and Tochi Anigbogu (Centennial).
The road to a possible meeting with Harvard-Westlake in the Sunday SoCal Chevy championship game begins with a clash with Fairfield’s Vanden, 25-11 last season and led by 6-6 senior-to-be Tyler Thompson, at 6:30 in Tustin’s aux gym.
For those who can’t be in the gyms, all games will be live-streamed and archived by BallerTV.
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