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SoCalHoops Tournament News

High Five America Memorial Day
Tournament Preview--(May 25, 1999)

There are two big tournaments going on this Memorial Day weekend in SoCal, and in addition to the adidas EBO/EA Hoops Summit which will take place in Fresno, High Five America will be hosting a multi-age level tournament at their facility in San Diego (actually in Poway) on the campus of USIU. Dave Axelson, who runs the tournaments for High Five, tells us that while the overall field is not as large as the tournament in Fresno, there will still be some excellent teams appearing, including an 8 team "High School Elite" Division, which will have the following teams:

High Five America Gold
Arizona Stars - Coached by Art Dye
Arizona Stars - Worossylla
Antelope Valley Skywalkers
Seattle Rotary Boys and Girls Club
San Fernando Valley Cavs
Future Stars
I Can All-Stars

Hopefully someone can send us the rosters of the High Five America Gold team, and we don't have rosters, but we know that Jerry Norley will do his best to get us the rosters for the AZ Stars (hint hint). But even without rosters, we'd expect to see Ryan Walcott 6ft2 Shadow Mountain , and maybe even a couple of the senior players, like Kevin Woodberry (6'-0" Sr. PG), Sammy Wade (6'-0" Sr. PG), or even Chris Craig (6'-2" Sr. PG). Hey Jerry, hurry up and send us those rosters.

The AV Skywalkers should be the same team that regularly appears at the Pump events, including Kevin Johnson (5'-7" Jr. Quartz Hill), Jamal Flanagan (6'-2" Fr. F) Antelope Valley Christian, Matthew Nurse (5'-10" Jr. PG) Antelope Valley Christian, John Loftin (6'-2" Jr. G/F) Antelope Valley Christian, Peter Beaudin (6'-6" Jr. F/C) Antelope Valley Christian, Oliver Haworth (6'-1" Jr. G) Highland, Michael Kennedy (6'-6" Jr. F) Antelope Valley Christian.

Rotary will probably feature the same guys from the Pump Tournaments, so we'd expect to see at least some combination of Roy Smiley (6'-4" Jr. SG) from Seattle Garfield, Maurice Murphy (6'-1" Jr. PG) from Seattle O'Dea, Eric Bond (6'-7" So. SF), from Seattle Prep, Josh Williams (6'-7" So. PF) from Yakima Davis, Michael Thompson (6'-4" Jr. SF/SG) from Seattle Ballard, Andre Jackson (6'-2" Jr. SG) from Renton High, Chester Simmons (6'-4" Jr. PG/SG) from Seattle Garfield, Amon Gordon (6'-4" Jr. PF) from Everett Mariner, Seamus Boxley (6'-6" Jr. SG/SF) from Mountlake Terrace.
Ben Devoe (6'-11" Jr. C) from Olympia High, and A.J. Brooks (5'-10" Jr. PG) from Seattle Franklin . It's also possible that Teyo Johnson (6'-7" Jr. SF/PF ) from Everett Mariner and Ed Roy (6'-6" Jr. SF) from Seattle Garfield will show, but they didn't show for the Pump Tournament and they might instead make the trip to the Nike Tournament in Kentucky or to Gibbons tournament in North Carolina.

We're not certain who is on the CAV's team this time, but it might include some or all of Devin Montgomery, Bryson Atkins, Teron Reed, Reggie Kinlaw, George Wrighster, Jason Tubbs, Byron Joseph, Maike Hernandez, Reny Maynard, and Jeremiah Turner, but then again, most of these guys are seniors, so we'll be interested to see who Darryl McDonald has coming up in the wings.

No idea who the Future Stars will bring, and we also see that Future Stars Elite is going to be at Fresno as well, so whether this is the same group or a different team, we'd expect to see Nick Booker (6'-6" Jr. SG/SF) playing somewhere this weekend. Same thing for ICan All Stars--evidently two different teams, one in San Diego and one in Fresno. Rosters anyone?

Dave also tells us that High Five America's strongest division this coming weekend will be the Boys 14/U, where they have 27 teams registered. "Any one of about 8 teams in the field could emerge as the winner including, High Five America Red, NorCal, Rotary Boys and Girls from Seattle, San Fernando Cavs, Orange County Nets, Arizona Stars, L.A. Raidogs, or ARC Razorbacks," according to Dave. "One element that is probably unique to our tournament is that pool play will be used for seeding purposes only and all teams will be entered into bracket play. The result of which is that the Boys 14/U division will take a while to play down to a champion (26 games) but the quarter-final, semi-final and finals should be some great basketball."

Dave also says that they will have 19 teams in the Boys 12/U Division. "We have a total of 147 teams entered in High Five America's Memorial Weekend Tournament."

Unfortunately we'll be up in Fresno, but we understand that Mike Miller of PacWestHoops will be in San Diego, so expect some player profiles and notes on the tournament from him.