SoCalHoops High School News

High School Team Preview:
Savanna High School--(Nov. 26, 1999)

This team preview is admittedly short, and it's also short on informatoin on some of the players listed here.  We have not spoken with the coach at Savanna, and as we've explained before, we simply don't have time to talk to every coach of every team in the Southern Section.  This preview is based in large part upon information published in the Orange County Register on November 25, 1999 in a preview of the Orange League written by Richard Manfredi. The LA Times has not yet previewed Savanna, so our information is limited to the Register and what we know on our own.

Savanna High school plays in the Orange League and competes against Brea Olinda, Magnolia, Valencia (Placentia), and Western.  The school is located in Anaheim, and has a four year, coed student enrollment of 2100 students. Last year the school finished second in league with an overall recored of 17-10, 7-3 in league, and they qualified for the Southern Section Division II-A playoffs, pulling Compton in the first round.  Even with Compton's depleted status (recall that they had 8 players declared academically ineligible immediately before the final two games of the league season, including Tito Maddox and Leroy Dawson), the Rebels still managed to lose to the Tarbabes 69-54 in the first round. The Rebels are coached by third year coach James Honell.  Overall he has a record of 27-27.

Here's the roster for 1999-2000:

Season Outlook--Savanna has been selected by the Orange County Register to finish second in league behind perennial favorite Brea Olinda, and ahead of Anaheim, Magnolia, Valencia and Western (in that order). Here's what Richard Manfredi of the Register wrote about Savanna's season outlook in his preview article on the Orange League in the November 25 issue of the Register:  "The Rebels are lookng to make a run at a league title behind the play of Purcel."  Oops, we think he meant to say Purnell.  Whatever.  Savanna should be good, will contend and will again make the playoffs. Allan Purnell is in fact a definite talent, a potential low to mid-D-I prospect, and he's been idetntied by SoCalHoops previously as among the best of the senior class.  Most of the others on the team are relative newcomers or virtual unknowns, at least we don't really know much about them.

Apparently others believe that the team is worthy of a big time tournament appearance, and they've been invited to the Ocean View Tournament of Champions, where they'll play Mater Dei. . . er, um, it's probably more accurate to say that they'll be the first victim of the Monarchs in tournament play this year.

Here's the season schedule:

 
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