2010-2011 BOYS BASKETBALL PREVIEW

Norwalk to challenge Mayfair for Suburban League’s top spot NORWALK LANCERS
16-13 overall last season, 8-4 in the Suburban League, tied for second place, lost to Mark Keppel 63-54 in the Division II-A second round.
Head coach: Jim Webster (ninth season, 74-136)
Team’s record past five seasons: 54-79
STARTERS LOST
Anthony Holliday (18.0)
Jeffrey Montoya (4.4)
STARTERS RETURNING
Sr. Manuel Castaneda (11.0)
Sr. Cammie Lewis (7.9)
Jr. Terence Traylor (5.0)
OTHERS RETURNING
Sr. Kendrick Horn
Sr. Eric McElroy
Back to back seasons of double digit victories have suddenly made Norwalk a serious contender for one of the top spots in the league after many seasons sitting at the bottom. Now, the Lancers move on minus Anthony Holliday, arguably one of the best players, if not the best player to have ever played at Norwalk. The good news for head coach Jim Webster is that he still has a tremendous amount of experience with three returning starters.
“It’s always hard to know what to expect,” Webster said. “You expect to compete and play well. We obviously had one of our best teams since I’ve been here and to meet those expectations and a little beyond…was great. It definitely was exciting.”
Holliday’s tag team partner last season, senior Manual Castaneda, returns as the team’s top player. Not only is he valuable on the boards, but like Holliday, he can light it up from the outside. Castaneda can be expected to average five to seven more points a game from last season. Senior Cammie Lewis and junior Terence Traylor give the Lancers a solid trio that should help put pressure on defending league champion Mayfair.
“We definitely have plenty of experience in those three positions,” Webster said. “Hopefully we’ll have enough scoring as well with them being three-year varsity guys. We’re definitely trying to manipulate the offense where we get the good looks for them and then spread it out too.”
Last season, the starters combined for 87 percent of the team’s scoring. The Lancers got just 197 points from their non-starters. This season, Castaneda, Lewis and Traylor will need to get more help from the rest of the team. Webster has tabbed junior Angel Arevalo and sophomore Michael Rocha as the top two newcomers and both of them are guards. Also on the team will be seniors Angel Montero, Vince Olvera and Gilbert Peregrina and juniors Andrew Gutierrez, Armando Holquin and Ondre Rissling.
“We’re always going to need to replenish and rebuild and the good thing we’ve done this year is most of our new guys are juniors,” Webster said. “So, they won’t be one year varsity guys. That’s what we’re trying to get into.”
Webster believes the league will once again be wide open as it was last season, although it will be a little bit tougher.
VALLEY CHRISTIAN CRUSADERS
11-16 overall last season, 1-9 in the Olympic League, tied for fifth place, lost to Pacific Hills 62-37 in the Division IV-A second round.
Head coach: Bryan Branderhorst (fifth season, 74-41)
Team’s record past five seasons: 80-61
STARTERS LOST
Chris Hunt (15.4)
Aaron Padilla (6.6)
Dean Pollema (10.4)
STARTERS RETURNING
Sr. Connor Tien
Jr. Anthony Roldan (5.2)
OTHERS RETURNING
Sr. Joshua Castanos
Sr. Jeff Hing
Sr. Trevor Rodriguez
Jr. Cole Clark (3.3)
If head coach Bryan Branderhorst didn’t have to deal with the brutal Olympic League last season, his team would have done just fine. But the Crusaders just couldn’t muster enough power to keep up with the likes of Division V-AA finalist Windward among others. Now, the Crusaders will say hello to some new league teams in hopes of giving Branderhorst his third winning season at V.C.
“It was a tough year,” Branderhorst said. “We started the season off pretty well but that old Olympic League was a tough league. There was a lot of good, big time talent in that league. Heading into last year, we didn’t have a whole lot of experience. All of our guards were brand new. But we’re looking forward to this season. We have a lot of guys coming back, especially in the backcourt. That’s going to hold us steady.”
While the Crusaders lose their top two scorers from last season, the team returns half a dozen players who not only have a lot of varsity experience, but have improved in their own ways.
Branderhorst said that senior Trevor Rodriguez developed an offensive game during the summer and will be more of a threat. Senior Joshua Castanos is more of a total package as far as his defense and rebounding is concerned. Senior Jeff Hing is emerging as a leader on the floor, senior Connor Tien is a much better finisher and scorer while junior Anthony Roldan is the most versatile scorer on the team and junior Cole Clark has improved his perimeter shooting.
“Those six guys are battle tested now,” Branderhorst said. “They took some lumps last year and I think it’s going to be good for them. I think it makes them hungry; it made them work hard in the offseason. It gave them some things to shoot for and to improve on.”
Seniors James Griffin and Lionel Hendrick, juniors Nate Padilla, Jordan Rhodes and Lewayne Wright and sophomore Caleb Miller are new to the varsity squad. Of those, Branderhorst said Griffin will be an instant impact and is ‘ready to compete for some serious minutes’.
“I assume we’re going to be fairly balanced,” Branderhorst said. “Hopefully we’ll score a lot of points off our defense. As far as our offense goes, we’re not going to look to just jam it into one guy. We’re going to run an equal opportunity motion offense and try to stay balanced.”
In addition to Windward leaving the Olympic League, Brentwood, Campbell Hall, Crossroads and Montclair Prep depart. The Crusaders will now face Los Angeles Baptist, Maranatha, Village Christian and Whittier Christian in league. All four of those teams were in the Alpha League and none of them got past the second round in the playoffs.
“I don’t think anybody around here is more excited about our new Olympic League than me,” Branderhorst said. “I think the competition is going to be evenly matched. I honestly couldn’t tell you who I think is favored to win our league. On paper, probably Whittier Christian is favored because they bring back a lot of starters.”