elsinore 211

SoCal Prep & High School Report

Sunkist League: Elsinore High
School Varsity Profile --(February 11, 1998)

Wow, we've found a veritable goldmine of information from the Riverside Press Enterprise on the teams playing in the Inland Empire area. Here's yet another report from the Riverside Press Enterprise, this time featuring the Elsinor High basketball team from the Lake Elsinore area of southern Riverside County. The Sunkist League features teams such as
Bloomington, Elsinore, Norte Vista, Paloma Valley, Santiago/Corona, and Temescal Canyon. Again, since the PE doesn't archive their articles, we're going to reproduce it here in it's entirety. Elsinore is another of the teams profiled today which has a chance to win it's league in tonight's game. Here's the report:

When Elsinore High's best basketball player this decade, Erron Maxey, graduated and headed to Providence, few but the most optimistic fans probably expected Elsinore to contend for a league title. After all, Coach Peter Rettinger had lost not just the 28.7 points and 14.1 rebounds per game that Maxey produced but also his No. 2 scorer (Ben Smith) and his assist leader (Robbie Franks).

So who would have thought Elsinore (6-2 in the Sunkist League, 15-9 overall) would be tied for the Sunkist lead going into the final week of league play? Rettinger isn't exactly shocked, more like pleasantly surprised by what has happened. "They have come along way," he said of his players. "The fruits of their hard labor are coming to fruition."

While two-sport third-year starters Tommy Ellis and Jeimar Spell have grown into their more critical roles, as Rettinger and others might have expected, senior Ryan Boggs has gone from a reserve last season to starting shooting guard and scoring leader. "He's made a great transition from his junior year to his senior year," Rettinger said. Boggs (5-foot-11, 150 pounds) is averaging 16.3 points and 4.2 assists a game, and his 66 three-point baskets rank him third in Riverside County.

Boggs said the change from last season to this one wasn't a quantum shift, just an attitute adjustment -- and lots of iron pumped. "We didn't have a go-to guy," as the Tigers did with Maxey last season, Boggs said. "Someone else had to step up." Someone had to bulk up, too. Boggs increased his maximum bench press to 215 pounds from about 150 pounds last year and added 50 pounds to his maximum squat, up to 300 pounds. With all that leg, Boggs can get up to the rim, but don't look for him there. "I can dunk sometimes but I wouldn't do it in a game though -- I'd go for the two points, the easy layup," Boggs said.

That less-than-flashy, no-I-in-team attitude is shared by the whole squad, Rettinger said. "They don't even look at the scorebook after the game. . . . They're not even into that, they're more into a team goal," Rettinger said. "And that's nice." The only number that Boggs was concerned with was the school record for three-pointers in a game. Boggs' cousin, Rick Wolter (now with Riverside Community College) set the record with six in '96 Boggs broke it Jan. 30, making his seventh three with less than a minute to play in the Tigers' 70-55 victory over Riverside Norte Vista.