5A Region Preview: Northwest
The Northwest region features multiple teams that will have a lot of position battles this fall and early winter. It will be fun to see how players who had limited roles last season step up and take over new spots.…
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Continue ReadingThe Northwest region features multiple teams that will have a lot of position battles this fall and early winter. It will be fun to see how players who had limited roles last season step up and take over new spots. In addition, keep an eye on teams like Liberty and Centennial as they have a lot of talent and could make noise in more areas than just their region.
Northwest Top 3
Liberty High School
Despite a difficult year this past season in Division 1, Liberty looks poised to have a solid showing in 2016-17. Although the team lost some key talent, they return a solid group that will primarily be led by some talented guards. 2017 Cole Roether and Dom Ciccaglione should lead the way for this group. Roether is a crafty player who does far more than knock it down from deep. In fact, his play ability to hit it from deep merely opens up the rest of his game. As far as Ciccaglione is concerned, he is a high IQ point guard who can also shoot it from deep at a high level but mixes it with a great change of pace dribble that makes it hard for opposing guards to close out hard on the shot and stay in front. In addition, look for this constantly pressing and face paced team to have solid years from 2019 Jacob Edahl and 2018 Quentin Guliford. Due to their talent and quality returners, this is the early favorite to win the Northwest region.
Centennial High School
Centennial lost a good portion of their team to graduation. However, they should not be down on talent. If their summer is any indication as to what to expect from this group, look for a team that gets the basketball up the court quickly. In addition, their guards have high basketball IQs and shoot the basketball at a high level. Moreover, look for a lot of improvements from athletic 2018 wing and forwards Trenton Washington and Koby Jones. There ability to protect the rim, clean up the glass, and run the floor will make them a huge commodity with their smart guards. This team has the ability to be quite dangerous and should be the lead challenger with Liberty for the Northwest region title.
Sierra Linda High School
Sierra Linda lost the vast majority of their team from last year. However, they return PG/SG Ahmire Gaines who averaged 16 points per game and almost 4 rebounds. Sierra Linda tends to have teams that play together and with a lot of intensity. If they are able to find the pieces to go around Gaines, they could be ready to compete for the region title. Linda is much like most of the teams in this region in that most of the teams lost good portions of their upperclassmen to graduation, but having Gaines back should be a nice commodity as the players earn and learn their roles.
Northwest Best of the Rest
Shadow Ridge – Shadow Ridge returns a couple of underclassmen that were on the varsity roster last year, but much like Willow Canyon, their varsity roster will primarily be brand new. It will be interesting to see how both teams refill their roster spots.
Players to Watch
Ahmire Gaines 6’2 PG/SG 2017 Sierra Linda
Koby Jones 6’4 SF/PF 2018 Centennial
Trenton Washington 6’3 SF 2018 Centennial
Jacob Edahl 5’9 PG/SG 2019 Liberty
Quentin Guilford 6’3 SG/SF 2018 Liberty
Dom Ciccaglione 5’8 PG 2017 Liberty
Cole Roether 5’11 PG 2017 Liberty
John Mendoza 6’0 SG 2019 Willow Canyon