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SoCalHoops Tournament News

BCW Tournament: Battle For
The Central Valley--(Nov. 18, 1999)

The Fresno Bee carried a great article today on the Buchannan-Clovis West Tournament, which will be held from December 1-4, 1999 up in Fresno, and which is going to feature some of the top teams in the State of California. Unless you're reading this today, the article won't be archived, so we'll do the next best thing, and reprint it below, so that all of you hoops fans from SoCal can plan to make the trip up to Fresno that week (or at least for the finals on Saturday, Dec. 4). This is going to be one of the best all year, and it's a great way to start the season. Here's the article which ran today in the Bee.

Some of state's best tip off season

By Lisa Burnett
The Fresno Bee

(Published November 18, 1999)

All Tony Petersen and Vance Walberg need to do to hype their boys' basketball tournament is rattle off the participants.

Nationally acclaimed and defending state Division 2 champion Dominguez High (Compton), Division 1 champion Fremont (Oakland), Division 3 winner Washington and Division 5 runner-up Calvary Temple (Modesto) headline a 28-team field in the Kiwanis BCW Hoop Challenge, which opens the tournament season Dec. 1-4 at Buchanan and Clovis West.

Walberg, Clovis West's coach, calls the improved and expanded tournament "probably one of the top two or three tournaments in the state. Probably 10 of the top 20 teams in the state will participate." Washington coach Larry Triguiero says, "It's the best local tournament that's ever been around here - by far."

Also entered are Long Beach Poly, Inglewood, Ayala (Chino Hills), Oak Ridge (El Dorado Hills), Fremont (Los Angeles), Crossroads (Santa Monica), Golden Valley (Merced), Cleveland (Reseda), Skyline (Oakland), Chatsworth, Canoga Park, Santa Monica, Palisades (Pacific Palisades), Dorsey (Los Angeles), Brookside Christian (Stockton) and Sylmar. Central Section participants are Clovis West, Bakersfield, Edison, Hoover, Buchanan and McLane. The tournament, formerly known as the Buchanan Kiwanis Hoop Invitational "Battle at Central Cal," expands from 16 teams for its fifth annual event, and Petersen, the Bears coach, says bigger definitely is better.

"When we started, we had eight teams, and I've always wanted to do a big one - get some teams from up north, down south and the Valley. We've always had pretty good teams, but we have more higher-caliber teams. We had a good field last year, but we really upgraded with Fremont of Oakland and Long Beach Poly."

Next year, the tournament will either expand to 32 teams or decrease to 24. Petersen says another increase is likely because teams are already calling about next year. "It's a good setting because we are centrally located so we can attract from the north and the south. And we want to showcase some of the local talent. I think we have good talent here, and we have good coaches here." Last year, Clovis West beat Washington at the buzzer. Previous winners were Edison ('97), Golden Valley ('96) and Washington ('95).

The tournament begins with pool-play Dec. 1 and 2 in two gyms at Buchanan and Clovis West. Teams will then be divided into gold, silver, bronze and consolation brackets for Dec. 3 and 4, when Alta Sierra Intermediate also hosts games. The only drawback to the tournament is its timing - five section football championships will be played Dec. 3. But other basketball tournaments are scheduled every other weekend in December, and the Buchanan girls host the New Year's Classic the first weekend after the holidays.

"That's the only weekend that's really available right now," Petersen says.