The 2017 West Coast Jamboree celebrates its 18th year of competition with 160 teams, and that’s the largest field in the history of a girls basketball tournament that already was the largest in the nation. Teams from throughout Northern California and quite a few teams from Southern California are represented. There are also teams traveling to the Concord area from other Western States, plus Alaska and Texas, and British Columbia as well.
There will be 20 divisions at 12 sites in a wide geographic area of the East Bay that includes gyms in Central, Southern and East Contra Costa Counties, as well as Alameda and Solano Counties.
The 12 sites are Alhambra-Martinez, Amador Valley-Pleasanton, Castro Valley, College Park-Pleasant Hill, Cornerstone Christian-Antioch, Dublin, Heritage-Brentwood, Jesse Bethel-Vallejo, Monte Vista-Danville, St. Patrick-St. Vincent-Vallejo and Ygnacio Valley-Concord. Play begins for all dvisions at all sites on Thursday, Dec. 28 and runs through Saturday.
This year also marks the second year of the Jamboree’s Scholarship Program. Part of the reason the tournament’s organizers decided seven years ago to seek non-profit 501C-3 status and form a board of directors that currently oversees the selection process was to be able to award scholarships. The Jamboree is the only high school tournament in any sport in the nation to award scholarships. Last year participating seniors in the Jamboree that applied and were selected as winners were awarded a total of $7,500 in scholarship monies.
“One of the goals when we started the Jamboree 18-years ago was to be able to support girls basketball in the East Bay and eventually give out scholarships, and I’m pleased to say we have been able to do just that,” said David Jackson, the founder of the West Coast Jamboree and current board member who also serves on the scholarship selection committee.
Platinum Division Preview
This year’s Platinum Division is the Jamboree’s top bracket and has one of the strongest fields in recent memory. One of the biggest reasons is because of first-time participant Archbishop Mitty, the 2016 CIF Northern Regional Open Division champions.
Mitty (9-0) will roll into Clayton Valley where the Platinum Division will be contested as the No. 1 team in the nation in the upcoming Maxpreps Xcellent 25 after Coach Sue Phillips and her girls went into the Joe Smith division of the Nike TOC at No. 4 in the nation and won the tournament’s top division. They did it after beating No. 3 St. John’s (D.C) 57-49 in the quarterfinals, No. 1 Riverdale (Tennessee) 64-50 in the semis, and capped it off with a 57-50 victory in the title game over No. 2 St. Mary’s-Stockton.
The Monarchs are led by Cal-Hi Sports State Sophomore of the Year Haley Jones. The 6-1 ESPNW No. 1 rated junior wing and No. 5 ranked junior in the nation overall has offers from just about every major program in the nation.
Jones was in some foul trouble in the St. John’s and Riverdale games but in the title-game victory over St. Mary’s she went for a double-double 22 points and 10 rebounds and was named the Smith Division MVP.
University of San Diego-bound 6-2 post Nicole Blakes has been turning some heads to start the season and went for 20 points against St. Mary’s after three previous solid outings including 22 points and seven rebounds against St. John’s earned her an All-Tournament selection.
Penn State-bound 6-0 guard Karisma Ortiz took her lumps in the title game and played great defense before fouling out, but against Riverdale she had 18 points and 14 rebounds and was six-of-six from the free-throw line, and her first two games were solid.
Phillips was pretty matter of fact about Ortiz: “We don’t win without her.”
Senior shooting guard Krissy Miyahara was a contributor in all four games and had eight points in the title game and 10 points in the Riverdale win.
A player to watch for is freshman guard Hunter Hernandez or “Hundo” as Phillips calls her. In 26 years at the Monarchs helm there have only been four freshman starters for Phillips.
The first was Kerri Walsh (Jennings) who went on to be star in volleyball at Stanford as a two-time NCAA winner that’s regarded as one of the best collegiate volleyball players of all time, and then a three-time Olympic Gold Medalist and someone most experts agree is the greatest women’s beach volleyball player of all time.
Next came Danielle Robinson. She starred at Oklahoma after leaving Mitty and is now a WNBA star with the Phoenix Mercury.
The third was Jones and now comes Hernandez. She had seven points in the St. Mary’s win.
The first girl in off the bench is Ania McNicholas. The junior guard had 15 points in the Riverdale win.
Obviously Phillips and her Prep2Prep Central Coast Section No. 1 and Cal-Hi Sports top-ranked Monarchs will be an overwhelming favorite but the rest of the teams won’t just be showing up to concede the title to Mitty and there should be some real interesting games in this year’s Platinum Division.
The Monarchs open with Chaminade-West Hills from the San Fernando Valley area of the CIF Southern Section. The Eagles were the CIF Open Division state champions two years ago. Chaminade comes into the Jamboree off winning the Conquistador Classic with a victory over El Camino-Woodland Hills. Three seniors that shine for Coach Kelli Di Muro are 6-1 post Jasmine Moore and guards Alexis Rodriguez and Mackenzy Iwahashi.
On the other side of the bracket is Prep2Prep North Coast Section No. 1 and Cal-Hi Sports No. 3 ranked Salesian. The Pride (5-1) have a huge win at P2P CCS No. 2 Pinewood, and despite losing in the quarterfinals of the John Anderson Division of the Nike TOC to an eventual champion Roland Park (Maryland), they bounced back to beat La Jolla Country Day and then Germantown Academy (Pennsylvania) in the fifth place game of the tournament’s second toughest division.
The Pride is led by the junior duo of Angel Jackson and Makayla Edwards. Jackson, a 6-5 post that is the ESPN No. 12 rated junior big girl in the nation, had a double-double 21 points and 13 rebounds with four blocks in the 63-52 win over Germantown. Edwards, a 5-10 power forward/wing that is starting to come into her own, followed up a 23 point effort in the 44-39 win over La Jolla Country Day with 20 points and six rebounds against Germantown.
Other players to look for are seniors Taimane Lesa-Hardee, Sydni Stewart and Taisia Fleming, and juniors Anjel Galbraith and Nia Chinn.
Salesian will meet Sacramento in its opener. The Dragons feature ESPN No. 14 rated junior guard RyAnne Walters. Sacramento is coming off a seventh-place finish in the Mike Desper Division of the Nike TOC after losing to Sacred Heart Cathedral and Colorado Highlands Ranch the Dragons were a 60-49 winner over Pennsylvania Mt. Lebanon.
An interesting first round matchup pits P2P NCS No. 4 Carondelet against state-ranked Folsom and Cal-bound 6-0 senior and ESPN No. 5 rated senior wing McKenzie Forbes. Folsom comes into the Jamboree off impressive road wins over a West Campus team that opens against Bishop O’Dowd in the Platinum Division, and a McClatchy team that draws Kinkaid-Houston (Texas) in its Jamboree Gold Division opener.
Carondelet went 2-2 in the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas with one of the wins over perennial Nevada power Bishop Gorman. The Cougars also have a 64-56 win over a P2P CCS No. 3 Sacred Heart Cathedral team that is in the Jamboree’s Diamond Division. Coach Elgin Leslie boasts a solid lineup that includes highly-regarded 6-3 junior post Ali Bamberger, fellow junior guard Erica Miller and senior forward Maaeva Dwiggins.
Previously mentioned Bishop O’Dowd and West Campus meet in the fourth Platinum Division opening matchup.
Prep2Prep NCS No. 7 O’Dowd has struggled in the early season but they do have win in the Anderson Division of the Nike TOC over a Florida Montverde Academy that beat Southern California power Mater Dei-Santa Ana in its next game. The top two players for Coach Malik McCord are senior wing Zakiya Mahoney and junior guard Jada Holland, plus a lot of up and coming underclass players like sophomore wing Daylee Dunn.
West Campus has a 12-point win over McClatchy but Coach John Langston and his girls took their lumps in the Anderson Division of the TOC. The Warriors are led by UCLA-bound senior guard Kiara “KJ” Jefferson, senior guard Nia Johnson and sophomore guard Gaby Rones.
