SoCalHoops High School News

High School Team Preview:
El Modena HS--(Nov. 26, 1999)

El Modena High School is located in the City of Orange, at 3920 Spring Street.  The school, which is part of the Orange Unified School District, has an enrollment of 1974 full-time students; it's a four year, coeducational school, and the enrollment places it in Division II-AA in the event they make the playoffs, which might happen this year with a lot of returning players. The school competes in the Century League against Canyon (Anaheim), Foothill, Orange, Santa Ana Valley and Villa Park.   Last year, then-first year coach Roger MacLachlan led the Vanguards to a sixth place finish with a record of 7-19 overall and only 2-8 in league play.    Needless to say, the team failed to qualify for the playoffs.

As we've said before, there are way too many schools in the Southern Section alone for us to speak with every single coach, and El Mo is one of those, at least at this point in the season.   So we'll have to rely on the stuff we either know about them from previous stories or what we can find in the local papers.   Which means that we're relying in large part on what the LA Times OC Edition and the Register have published in their respective reviews.  This year, the Register's Steve Fryer, in his preview of the team written on 11/22/99, wrote:  "The Vanguards will have to overachieve to finish in the top half of the standings."   About Joe Cortez (5'-9" Sr. PG) the returning starting point guard on the team, Fryer wrote: "Cortez might be the best point guard in the league.  Beyond him, assets are not plentiful." 

The team has three primary players returning, Cortez, three year varsity player Brock Kyler, and shooting guard Casey Clark.  There are several other newcomers, but no on really knows.  In the LA Times preview of El Modena, MacLachlan also identified Jason Toper (6'-3" Sr. C) as among the players on the team.  But neither newspaper identified anyone else.  As MacLachlan said to the Times, "After that, it's up in the air."

From our perspective, it doesn't even make sense to try to post up a separate roster other than what's set forth above. Who shows up will be anyone's guess.  We wouldn't look for El Modena to do much better than sixth, possibly fifth if they are lucky and stay healthy.  But who really knows besides MacLachlan?   And he's not saying right now.  He did tell the Times in their preview that he "believes he has one of the top freshman classes in the county, but this season, even with four starters back, he doesn't see a lot of change."   Who those freshmen are, MacLachlan isn't saying either.  Maybe we should call him and really find out. . . . maybe. 

For now though, we'll just have to wait until the season gets underway to find out who MacLachlan is talking about.  And  we won't have to wait long either because things get rolling in three days, Monday, November 29, as the Vanguards will open play in the Loara Tournament.  Here's the rest of the schedule for 1999-2000 for El Modena:

And just in case you decide to venture out to the school for a game or two, here's a map:

El Modena HS 3920 Spring Street, Orange CA (714) 997-6331

 
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