Prep Rally: Chino Hills is one of the surprise teams in high school basketball

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Prep Rally. I’m Eric Sondheimer. Let’s examine some surprise teams in high school basketball.

Exceeding expectations

There’s plenty of teams exceeding expectations in high school basketball teams.

How about Chino Hills at 21-4? Yes, the school that went unbeaten 10 years ago led by the Ball brothers is more than holding its own this season. The Huskies are 2-0 in the Baseline League and face tough games this week against Etiwanda and Damien.

Corona Santiago is 20-3 under third-year coach Carlos Castillo, who was an assistant to Josh Giles at Corona Centennial for eight years. The Sharks knocked off defending state champion Eastvale Roosevelt on Friday night 70-63. Two 5-foot-10 guards, Ethan Wadman and Evan Nayback, have been leading the success, along with sophomore guard Matt Bernal. Wadman was MVP of a division at the Tarkanian Classic.

Chaminade is 19-2 and took down Loyola on Friday, the team that beat Sherman Oaks Notre Dame. Temi Olafisoye, a 6-foot-9 senior, is averaging 17 points. He had 22 points and 20 rebounds against Loyola.

Oaks Christian is 17-3 and 2-0 in the Marmonte League. Sophomore Brady Sullivan is averaging 16.1 points.

Bishop Amat is 20-3 under coach Brandon Ertle, who won his 400th game as the Lancers’ coach. Sophomore Aiden Shaw is averaging 22.9 points.

Unbeaten Elsinore has run off 18 consecutive victories. Junior Kamrynn Nathan is averaging 24.6 points.

Triumph Charter is Sylmar is having its best season with a 15-2 record. The City Section school has been led by Antonio Garcia, averaging 19.4 points.

Boys’ basketball

St. John Bosco served notice with a 74-73 double overtime win over Santa Margarita in a Trinity League opener. The Braves now own wins over the Eagles and Harvard-Westlake, two of the top five teams in the Southland. Christian Collins came through at key moments. Here’s the report.

No. 1-ranked Sierra Canyon wasn’t dominant last week but came away with close wins over St. Francis and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame in Mission League play. Here’s the report. The Trailblazers are 15-1 and headed toward a title showdown game with Harvard-Westlake on Jan. 21 that will be a tough ticket to get at Sierra Canyon.

Damien became the Baseline League title favorite by going on the road to defeat Etiwanda. The Spartans scored the game’s first 24 points. Here’s the report.

Palisades is making progress, improving to 5-10 and remains the team to beat in the Western League and in the City Section.

Coach Harvey Kitani of Rolling Hills Prep is four wins away from win No. 1,000 in his coaching career.

Calabasas is surging with 12 wins in its last 13 games. Here’s the report.

Crossroads came up with a key win in its Gold Coast League opener beating Brentwood. Former Brentwood star Shalen Sheppard led Crossroads.

Big games this week include Mira Costa at Redondo Union on Friday and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame at St. Francis on Thursday.

Also the State Preview Classic is set for Saturday at North Torrance.

Here’s this week’s top 25 rankings by The Times.

Freshman standouts

It’s been a good year for freshmen to contribute at the varsity level.

The best one so far has been Will Conroy Jr. of Village Christian.

Here’s a report on freshmen making an impact.

Girls basketball

On Saturday, Kaleena Smith of Ontario Christian turned in a performance for the ages, scoring 50 points and rallying her unbeaten team to a double overtime victory over Archbishop Mitty at Mater Dei. Here’s the report.

Smith, a junior, has become the most sought-after girls basketball player by college recruiters since JuJu Watkins.

JSerra has risen to No. 3 in the Southern California top 20 rankings. The Lions are 16-2 after holding off Flintridge Prep 75-73. They have wins over Sierra Canyon, Oak Park and Corona Centennial. They open Trinity League play against Santa Margarita on Thursday and face Windward on Saturday.

In the City Section, Westchester is 13-3 and has Western League games on Wednesday against Fairfax and Friday against Palisades.

Soccer

It’s been a quite a soccer season for Oak Park goalie Ben Buchler, who has set a school record with 10 shutouts this season.

Oak Park is 14-1-1 and 2-0 in league.

Palos Verdes holds down the No. 1 spot in Southern Section rankings.

Palos Verdes came through with a 2-1 double overtime win over Mira Costa. Here’s the report.

El Camino Real made a big move to become the favorite in the West Valley League with a 3-0 win over Cleveland and a 2-1 win over Birmingham.

In girls soccer, Santa Margarita is 12-0 and ranked No. 1 in Southern California.

Lessons to learn

While flying at 35,000 feet on a vacation, I wrote some lessons to live by for the 2026 high school sports season for parents, players and coaches.

Here’s the report.

Transfer portal

This should be a big week for the announcements of high school football players transferring with the spring semester starting at lots of schools.

Here’s the link to the current list of transfers.

One person to watch is All-City receiver and standout sprinter Demare Dezeurn of Palisades. Coach Dylen Smith said he’s heard the rumors like everyone else: Dezeurn to Sierra Canyon. School resumes at Palisades this week.

Dezeurn is one of the top track and field performers in the state, so where he ends up will be important for this spring whether he’s competing in the City Section or the Southern Section.

Notes . . .

Quarterback Chris Fields III of Carson has been selected the City Section player of the year in football. Here’s the All-City team. . . .

Trent Mosley and Dash Fifita of Santa Margarita top the All-CIF Southern Section Division 1 football team. Here’s the link to the All-CIF team. . . .

St. John Bosco, Harvard-Westlake, Orange Lutheran and Aquinas will participate in the National High School Baseball Invitational March 25-28 in Cary, N.C. . . . .

Zack Stein from Santa Margarita has committed to Whittier College for baseball. . . .

Layli Ostovar of Mater Dei has been selected the Gatorade state player of the year in girls’ volleyball. She’s committed to USC. . . .

Junior defensive back Aaryn Washington from Mater Dei has committed to USC. . . .

Former Loyola goalie Cabral Carter (class of 2022) has signed with LAFC in the MLS. . . .

Junior linebacker Taven Epps of Tustin has committed to Oklahoma. . . .

Noah Darnell, a pitcher at Santa Margarita, went from losing a scholarship to attending Harvard. Here’s his story. . . .

The Trinity League wrestling championships will be held Wednesday at St. John Bosco. . . .

Verbum Dei will hold a ceremony at halftime its basketball game against Gardena Serra on Friday at 7 p.m. retiring the jersey of the late David Greenwood. . . .

From the archives: Colton Joseph

Former Newport Harbor quarterback Colton Joseph has gone from starting quarterback at Old Dominion to one of Wisconsin’s biggest signees from the college transfer portal. He was the Sun Belt offensive player of the year.

He passed for 2,624 yards and 21 touchdowns and rushed for 1,007 yards this season at Old Dominion. As a senior at Newport Harbor in 2022, he passed for 2,749 yards and 30 touchdowns and rushed for seven touchdowns.

Here’s a story from 2022 when he passed for five touchdowns in the first half of a game in Hawaii.

Recommendations

From SI.com, a story on a high school basketball team ending a 120-game league losing streak.

From the Sacramento Bee, a story on a 6-8 high school basketball player known as “Mad Max.”

From the Los Angeles Times, a story on Crossroads students starting a high school pickleball league.

Tweets you might have missed

Until next time….

Have a question, comment or something you’d like to see in a future Prep Rally newsletter? Email me at eric.sondheimer@latimes.com, and follow me on Twitter at @latsondheimer.

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