century league overview

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SoCalHoops High School News

Century League Overview--(Nov. 26, 1999)

There are more schools in the Southern Section than we can possibly hope to preview in a single season, even if we worked from sunup 'til sundown, every day from now until the end of March when the State Championship games will be played. Some teams and leagues we have more than just a passing familiarity with, while others we're the first to admit, we just don't have a clue. To a certain extent, with more than 500 schools in the Southern Section, there isn't anyone who can hope to have a real grasp on every team out there, but hey, we're trying to present at least the illusion that it's possible to cover most of SoCal. It ain't easy, but the potential is there. The local media, specifically the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Times Orange County Edition, have been helpful again this year when it comes to profiling teams in Orange County, and they've been publishing their own league and team previews, which have included some roster information, overall won-loss records from last year, playoff history, and the season outlook for each team in the leagues they've featured. So rather than reinvent the wheel, we're going to use a lot of the information provided by both of those papers and essentially give you their previews (which were not posted on the Register's website), with such other and further information as we might possess about players, teams and prospects for the year, together with a little of our own analysis. And the Century League is one of the most competitive in the County, and thus we happen to know a lot more about the teams and players in that league than we do about some of the other leagues in the county.

The Century League was previewed this year for the local papers by Steve Fryer of the Register, and Paul McLeod of the Times, with assistance from other staff writers, including Peter Yoon. In the case of the Century League, both the Register and the Times avoided picking any favorites or making any predictions about the order of league finish, so we'll do our own wild predictions. Please no yelling or screaming, because these are just predictions, and frequently, we'll be the first to admit, we don't know what we're doing here.

Century League 1999-2000 (Predicted Order of Finish)

Villa Park |Original 99-00 Preview|--|Nov. 26 Update|
Foothill
Canyon (Anaheim)
El Modena
Orange
Santa Ana Valley

The links above will take you to some 'mini-previews', or in the case of Villa Park, to one of our early, full-blown previews, and to a more recent update with some other handy info, including a map. The more recent previews of the other schools include info from the Register and the Times, and other stuff we know about, but these previews are admittedly short on a lot of substance, particularly compared with those previews we've done utilizing complete interviews with the coaches. We'll continue to post both the in-depth articles as well as some of these brief overviews, in the hope that by the end of the season, we'll have a pretty complete picture of just about everything that's happened or which might happen in the Southern Section. Again, we haven't had time to contact all the coaches. Because most of these previews are admittedly short and possibly incomplete, we may update them during the season if time permits; then again, we might not. Still, even if they are short or admittedly incomplete, they're better than nothing, so enjoy.