burbank juni & ron

SoCal High School & Prep Report

Burbank High: Tough Times For Juni
Williams & Coach Quarterman--(January 12, 1998)

We saw this one in last week's LA Times Thursday edition, and we'd been meaning to follow up for some time on the preview we'd done on Burbank High in the pre-season. Seems that Coach Ron Quarterman is experiencing a first in his 13 year coaching career, and it's one that we're not really happy to hear about either. Both Ron and the Burbank team have been hit with a couple of whammys all at the same time.

First Juni Williams, a star player on the Burbank team, and top prospect this year, has been declared academically ineligible. This is really a shame. Juni has all the skills and talent to be a player at the next level, but he may not make it, first because he might not get the grades to advance, and second, because if he doesn't get the exposure, no one will know just how good this guy really is. He worked this last summer full time, and attended summer school, and so he didn't go to any of the "big time" camps. We're not certain if he played at the Best in the West--we know Burbank was there during the early rounds-- but he's certainly not going to get the needed exposure to advance. And without him, the rest of the Burbank team is just floundering, compiling only a 3-11 record, the first losing season Quarterman has ever experienced as a coach.

Ron's also had some tough times with ARC--American Roundball Corporation-- , where prior to this year, he'd enjoyed eight years as a successful AAU traveling team coach. While he's had some terrific and very talented teams with ARC, having coached Jason and Jarron Collins, Ruben Douglas and Travis Reed, all of whom played for the ARC traveling AAU tournament teams the past several years, including the Pump All Star events, this most recent fall session at ARC has been a different story altogether.

In the fall, Ron was put in charge of two 14 year old traveling teams, and frankly, maybe it was just that the talent pool was not deep enough for two teams, maybe it was too many overbearing or unrealistic expectations on the part of parents or the players, maybe it was a few players with egos too large--or not large enough, or maybe Ron just got caught up in a situation that he couldn't really control, but apparently he's not going to be coaching the same group of 14 year olds during the winter session. Eleven of the ARC 14's--pretty evenly distributed from both of the two teams---have, at least for now, formed a single team, and they've moved over to compete during the winter session in a group known as the "Valley Conference", an organization which has been around for more than 20 years, and which features about 60 or 70 teams in all age brackets. ARC is still going strong in the other age brackets, and the winter session is always difficult given that there are no high school age teams playing in league play. And Rich Goldberg tells us that we shouldn't worry, players have come and gone for years, and ARC is continuing to expanding in ever-more locations around California, and they are boosting their tournament offerings, combining forces with Issy Washington at Slam-n-Jam for the Vegas Grand Finale and the Christmas tourney in Vegas. But for now at least, the 14 year old ARC traveling teams have switched allegiances, and they'll have to develop a new crop.

The former ARC 14's (at least 11 of them) are now with the Northridge Knights, and the new team includes 6'-6" Harrison Schaen (Sierra Canyon), Brian Trump (A.E. Wright), David Gale and Aaron Stein (Buckley), Craig Weinstein (Milken), Matt Lewellyn (Campbell Hall), Charlie Kranzdorf (Montclair Prep), Dwuan Rice, Dino Wilburn, and Jonathon Williams (all from Pasadena), and Chris Tillman (from Lakeview Terrace). The team will be competing in regular league play and tournaments, and will be coached by Marc Borgeson, formerly a college and pro coach, who is now an assistant to Howard Abrams at Montclair Prep. While the possibility still exists that the team may return at some point again to the ARC aegis, it's not likely that that will happen until sometime later in the spring, when the full contingent of high school players and teams are done with the regular season.

Quarterman told the Times last week "I guess it's my turn. There aren't any coaches that are going to have winning teams every year," he said referring to his Burbank High squad. "I'm not going to quit so I'll just have to adjust. I'll deal with it, but I don't like it."

We want to wish Ron well, and to Juni, all we can say is hit the books young man, basketball will always be there, but the opportunity to get your education is now.