Re: CIF Playoffs - Small School Edition


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Posted by Small School Fan on February 15, 2023 at 12:30:26:

In Reply to: Re: CIF Playoffs - Small School Edition posted by lightning strikes on February 14, 2023 at 23:25:50:

: : : : : Shalhevet, Valley Torah, and AGBU.
: : : : : 3 small schools, we’re talking 200 students a pop, with local talent, winning basketball games in highly competitive divisions.
: : : : : We’ve had the opportunity to watch Coleman at Shali (Div 2) through the years, phenomenal. We watched Kopooshian at AGBU (Div 2), another basketball savant, and finally Schwartzberg (Div 2), incredibly gifted basketball mind. What these 3 have done with their programs, RESPECT.

: : : : Schools like this and many others under 1000 students(St John Bosco, Aquinas, St Paul,Etc.) are why the system changed last decade to no longer value attendance. You get these Schools with a strong feeder program and having fewer students doesn't mean much when the entire program has played basketball since they could walk.

: : : : Who else remembers seeing St John Bosco, Renaissance, SGA, etc. embarrass the lower divisions for years. It's much better seeing these teams compete against other top teams. Those were some great highlt competive wins

: : :
: : : I know there is no perfect formula to get teams where they belong competitively, but it would be a miracle if any of the "ethnic" small schools ever make a semifinal in any division higher than 3A. There just isn't enough consistent basketball talent in those communities to be competitive. Next year, all three schools mentioned by the original poster will be lucky to get within 25 of their 1st round opponent.

: : For what it's worth, AGBU is in the 2A semifinals and Valley Torah and SGA ran into each other in the 3A quarterfinals tonight.

: Admittedly, a miracle did happen. But part of that miracle for AGBU came from Redondo missing four key players in their road loss at Adelanto.

Some miracles require luck, and as the famous quote goes, "The harder I work, the luckier I get." Yet, that does not take away from what AGBU specifically, but also Shalhevet and Valley Torah have done this year and consistently do year-in and year-out against top competition. Last year, Valley Torah nearly won state beating out large public schools and traditional powerhouses along the way. This is not the same as St John Bosco, San Gabriel Academy, etc. who all recruit players to come to their schools or have feeders. These 3 work with what comes in their door, which is limited with a school population of 100+. Some of these schools are so small that they do not have a gym, but they compete. They will probably not win anything higher than 3A titles, it may be eons before another one makes a 2A semifinals, and they will have some major down years because, yes, the cupboards will be bare often. That's not the point of the thread though. Congrats to those coaches, those players, and those tiny schools for making noise.


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