prep talk

Monte Marcaccini was one of the best basketball players in Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High history, leading the Knights to a 1993 Southern Section Division III-A championship. He was a 6-foot-5 guard who turned down a scholarship to Indiana to play club ball in Italy, then ended up at Pepperdine and later Virginia before playing overseas.

Now Marcaccini, 51, is back in high school basketball, serving as an assistant coach at Oaks Christian High, where his son, James, is a 6-3 freshman playing for the 20-4 Lions.

“He loves the game and works hard,” Monte said. “I was a lot smaller than he was. He’s a much better player than I was as a freshman.”

Monte was known for being a little flamboyant and trash talking with the best. He’d tell anyone and everyone he could beat you one on one.

So who wins when it’s father vs. son these days?

“Now it would be pretty close,” the father said. “I would be worried now.”

Monte started a private business 25 years ago using his Italian roots — gelato, a frozen dessert.

Monte played for coach Mick Cady at Notre Dame. Cady also was the high school coach in Northern California for Oaks Christian coach Mark Amaral and recently dropped by to give a pep talk to the Oaks Christian players.

The big question is whether the son talks more than the father.

“I talked way more. He’s much more of a gentleman,” Monte said.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

Junior point guard Savannah Myles of Westchester is having an MVP-caliber season.

She’s averaging 26 points for the 15-3 Comets, the City Section Open Division title favorites.

She has a 4.0 grade-point average and keeps improving on the court.

Coach EJ Jackson said she has tremendous leadership skills, having been the team captain the last two seasons.

“She’s a three-level scorer who controls the pace of the game,” Jackson said.

The Comets play Western League rival Hamilton on Wednesday.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

They say “a picture is worth a thousand words,” so the photo of St. Francis standout golfer Jaden Soong and 7-foot-4 classmate Cherif Millogo might one day be worth thousands of dollars.

Soong, a sophomore, won the CIF state golf championship as a freshman. There’s little doubt he’s destined to be on the PGA Tour.

Jaden Soong celebrates after winning the Southern California Golf Assn. Amateur Championship at Saticoy Club in Somis in 2024.

(SCGA)

Millogo, a junior, is a rising basketball prospect. USC just offered him a scholarship.

Millogo used to play soccer, so there’s little doubt Soong could teach him to play golf — if he could find clubs long enough for him.

Basketball coach Todd Wolfson, who’s 6-8, might be able to loan him his.

“One day I wish to be as tall as Cherif and as good in golf as Jaden is,” Wolfson said.

Soong is playing in junior tournaments right now and probably won’t join his high school team until March.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

Sho Evans of Cleveland High was thrown into the fire as a freshman guard last season.

“It was hard,” he said. “I was trying not to mess up.”

This season as a 6-foot-4 sophomore, you can see his growing confidence and calmness. He’s had a 39-point game and isn’t afraid to launch a three.

“I learned to play with confidence and take what the defense gives me,” he said.

The development of Evans gives Cleveland another offensive weapon to go with 6-8 center Sergine Deme and guards TJ Wansa and Charlie Adams.

Evans had 17 points on Wednesday in a win over Granada Hills. His first name comes from his Japanese roots.

The Dodgers have Shohei Ohtani, but Cleveland is happy to have its own Sho.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

David Greenwood, one of the best high school basketball players in Southern California history, will have his jersey retired on Friday night during a ceremony at his alma mater, Verbum Dei.

Greenwood, who died on June 8 at the age of 68 after a bout with cancer, teamed with Roy Hamilton to make Verbum Dei one of the best teams during his high school days in the 1970s. He’d go on to be an All-American at UCLA and played 12 years in the NBA. He came back to coach at Verbum Dei.

Verbum Dei is playing Gardena Serra on Friday at 7 p.m. The ceremony will be held at halftime.

Greenwood was the No. 2 pick in the 1979 NBA draft by the Chicago Bulls. Magic Johnson went No. 1 to the Lakers. He’d win an NBA championship with the Detroit Pistons.

He coached Verbum Dei to state championships in 1998 and 1999.

“David was a hero to me,” said Verbum Dei alumnus DeAnthony Langston. “He’s one of the all-time greats in Verbum Dei history.”

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

Oak Park’s boys’ soccer team is proving very stingy when it comes to giving up goals.

Led by goalkeeper Ben Buchler, the Eagles (14-1-1) have recorded 10 shutouts this season, a school record.

Noah Zweig celebrates after scoring for Oak Park.

(Sharon Levy)

Their latest shutout came in a 3-0 Coastal Canyon League win over Royal. Cole Mitchell has been supplying the offense. He had three goals in a win over Newbury Park.

Next up is a showdown match with Moorpark (7-2-2) on Tuesday.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

Noah Darnell, a senior pitcher at Santa Margarita High, got to experience something that is becoming too common in the world of the college transfer portal and changing NIL rules.

He was committed to Tulane for about five months. Then a week before his senior year was to begin, he received a phone call.

“They didn’t have a spot for me,” he said of Tulane. “We’re going in another direction.”

A week later, Darnell went to an Ivy League showcase and informed coaches he was back on the market. Harvard coaches saw him, knew he had a 4.4 grade-point average and told him they wanted him.

“Harvard was No. 1 from the get-go,” Darnell said. “I’m so happy.”

These last-minute phone calls by schools telling commits there’s no longer a spot have become more frequent, especially because college baseball has changing roster rules. Luckily for Darnell, everything worked out.

“I felt a little bit angry,” he said of his initial reaction. “I was frustrated. I wanted to work twice as hard to get another offer.”

As for lessons learned in this sometimes uncertain environment, Darnell said, “The main lesson I learned was God has a plan and you have to trust it.”

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

JuJu Watkins is returning to Sierra Canyon High on Friday, the place where she was a high school basketball All-American.

The school will hold a ceremony retiring her jersey at halftime of the boys’ basketball game between Sierra Canyon and Sherman Oaks Notre Dame.

She will be presented with a framed jersey.

Watkins is sitting out this season at USC while recovering from a knee injury.

Sierra Canyon girls’ basketball coach Alicia Komaki said, “She raised our standards, which was hard to do because we had won four state championships. She was an incredibly talented player.”

Watkins was also making a huge impact in the college game until her injury last season during the NCAA playoffs.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

Calabasas pulled off a huge win in high school basketball on Tuesday night, handing Thousand Oaks its first defeat after 16 victories in a Marmonte League opener.

The Coyotes (13-5) have quietly turned around their season after a 2-4 start, winning 11 of their last 12 games.

One of the major contributors has been 6-foot-3 junior guard Johnny Thyfault, who’s averaging 16 points and has become a fan favorite because of his dunking skills. He also leads the team in taking charging fouls.

He transferred to Calabasas after his freshman year at Viewpoint.

As for beating Thousand Oaks, coach Jon Palarz said, “We got to play them at home and had great effort.”

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

If you asked Los Alamitos basketball coach Nate Berger to be honest about early expectations for a team that returned zero starters, he would have said a 1-9 start wouldn’t have been surprising.

But the Griffins, loaded with backups from last season and members of a good junior varsity team, are 8-6 going into an early Sunset League showdown with 16-1 Corona del Mar on Monday.

Tyler Lopez has been leading the way. The senior committed to Jessup University in Northern California is averaging 17 points and eight rebounds. Sophomore Isaiah Williamson, younger brother of former Eastvale Roosevelt standout Issac Williamson, has been making major contributions.

Berger has been pleased with his players’ growing experience and confidence after some early season struggles adjusting.

“I was pleasantly surprised how my team responded and some of these young players have jelled,” he said.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

Garo Ohannessian is known as a “lifer” at AGBU, an Armenian K-12 school in Canoga Park. He’s been there from the start and now he’s making a name for himself in high school basketball with his three-point shooting skills.

He set a school record making 13 threes and finishing with a career-high 45 points in a Dec. 30 win over Brawley.

He’s been a four-year varsity player and was a freshman when the team reached the Southern Section Division 2A playoff semifinals.

Coach Nareg Kopooshian has confidence in him to shoot from anywhere on the court. The 5-foot-10 senior has helped lead his team to a 13-2 record.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

Will Bryson III of St. Paul stuck it out for his senior basketball season even though the team lost pretty much everybody to graduation except for him.

All he can do is his best, and that’s what he has been doing, including a 68-point performance two weeks ago in Las Vegas in a triple overtime game.

The 6-foot-4 guard is averaging 33.1 points a game for St. Paul (6-9) and showing dedication in that he stayed knowing the team might not be as good as last season’s 19-11 team, but he’d be the leader entrusted to help young players develop. On Friday, he faces the state’s leading scorer, Jason Crowe Jr. of Inglewood, in a noon game at Morningside. Bryson ranks as No. 3 in the state. Crowe is averaging 43.9 points and the two have been facing off since their youth days.

Coach Patrick Roy has been raving about Bryson’s contributions.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.