rising stars express

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SoCalHoops Tournament News

San Diego's Rising Stars Express: Summer
Travel Plans, Tentative Roster--(June 16, 1999)

As everyone knows, the summer traveling period looms and teams and players have started readying themselves for the competition they'll be facing at venues such as Las Vegas, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Long Beach State, Georgia, and tournament locations where you'll find the top traveling teams and players. One such team is from the San Diego area, the Rising Stars Express, a team coached by Ollie Goulston, formerly of High Five. RSE will have a very busy summer. From July 15-19 they'll be at the adidas Big Time Tournament in Las Vegas, then from July 20-24 they'll play at the Double Pump Best of Summer Tournament held at Cal State Dominguez Hills, and then finally from July 26-30, they'll be at the BCI Nationals in Colorado Springs, Colorado. That's a busy summer, one which will see the team play an average of three games a day, sometimes more, for 16 days.

So who are these guys? This summer, the Rising Stars Express will have one of the better teams on the traveling circuit, and certainly one of the best collections of talent from the San Diego area. RSE will feature the following players (classes shown are for next season):

D.J. Brown (6'-5" Jr. SG/SF) Monte Vista H.S.
Tony Gwynn Jr. (5'10" Sr. G) Poway H.S.
B.J. Hart (6'-3" Sr. SG) Rock Island H.S. (IL)
Fred Hooks (6'-5" Sr. SF) Morse High School
Mike Kracalik (6'-8" Sr. PF/C) El Camino H.S.
Donyare Mayfield (5'-8" Sr. PG) Vista H.S.
Floyd North (6'-4" Jr. SG) St. Augustine H.S.
Will Waggoner (6'-2" Sr. SG) Helix H.S.
Jamaal Williams (6'-6" Sr. SF) St. Augustine H.S.

There could be some minor tweaking of the roster, and it's possible that a few more guys might join this group, but for now the players listed above should be considered on the active roster for RSE. Among this group of players, we'd have to say that one of the top players, and one who is largely overlooked by recruiting gurus on the West Coast is Floyd North. This summer he'll be going to ABCD (he was also invited to Nike Camp) before he gets with the team, from July 7-11. Actually, Floyd is probably about as good a baseball player as he is a basketball player, but we're predicting that basketball will be his sport of choice even though his baseball team just finished second in the San Diego Section of CIF (he's a rightfielder and pitcher. . . can you say "Dave Winfield?"). Floyd just recently came back to play after suffering a broken hand, and even though he only played basketball for one week, he still managed to lead the University of San Diego team camp in scoring and was top ten in rebounding and assists. Steve Wacaser has listed him as within his top 10 sophs last year in country, but us West Coast guys seem to keep missing him. Hopefully most of the coaches in the region will be familiar with his game by the time July comes to a close.

As for the other guys, here's out take: Donyare Mayfield is a great offensive force. He's a small guard, but he is extremely difficult to defend and can flat out shoot the ball. He's sort of like an Earl Boykins or Haywood Eaddy-type of player, who has been and possibly will continue to be underrecruited but ultimately by the end of the summer we're predicting that he'll be end up being all-conference type of player wherever he ends up. B.J. Hart is a D-1 athlete, a terrific defender and a great competitor, and is in our view a . Not sure if he shoots well enough for Mid-Major and above. Terrific defender and great competitor.

D.J. Brown (who also played with the Alley Cats, another of the top teams from San Diego) is terrific athlete who has not played much basketball, but who wants and likes to work hard and he should develop nicely. We'd expect to see him get invited next year to either adidas or Nike camp if he has the kind of summer and the kind of school year that we think he's capable of having. After Floyd, D.J. was probably the best sophomore in San Diego this past season.

Jamaal Williams is a workhorse who has tremendous hands, strength, and speed for a big man. He's a bit undersized for a post guy, but with his skills and work ethic, he's another definite mid-D-I player in our view who can guard bigger players and score almost at will. Jamaal is also a football player, and we expect that he'll probably play football at the next level, and might even develop to be good enough to earn a living playing on Sundays only. Another footballer is Mike Kracalik, a big bodied kid, who will probably end up playing the offensive line in college rather than on the hardwood. Nevertheless, like his counterpart Gregg Guenther (6'-8" Sr. PF) from Crespi who is transferring to Taft this year in LA, when Mike comes into the game it just changes the whole complexion of things.

Will Waggoner is a first team All-San Diego County performer, who just keeps getting better and better and who we think might even have the chance to be a good D-I or D-II player; he plays with a lot of heart and is very competitive. Tony Gwynn Jr. comes from the right gene pool, but has never really played at the level of competition that he'll see this summer, and as a result, the jury is still out; we'd predict that he'll be improving quickly to step up to the level of competition he'll be facing. Fred Hooks is a relentless worker and rebounder, who can play the 3, and he's the type of player who you have to really spend some time watching to appreciate how really fundamentally sound he is. He's the kind of guy who goes out and very quietly will score 16-18 points a game, and pull down between 10-12 rebounds before you even notice he's there. Nothing flashy, but he just gets it done.

RSE is more than just a single travel team, and they also work with some of the younger players who will, in the coming years, be competing at tournaments such as the Big Time. There are a few names to remember who are playing with RSE this spring and summer: Shamir Shire (6'-7" So. F) from San Diego H.S., is a very talented 3 man who will be a top player in the next year. Nate Carter (6'-3" So. G) from Lincoln Academy, is quickly developing into one of the more solid off-guards in the area. And Vincent Camper (6'-1" Fr. PG), who will be moving to Mississippi at the end of the summer, also has a chance to be a very special player, given his strength, skills and determination.