Recruiting Report: Jonah Tolmaire (2018)
You can’t miss Saddleback Valley Christian guard Jonah Tolmaire on the court.
He’s the guy 5-foot-10, football-looking guard buzzing from end-to-end and darting from side-to-side. He’s a ball of pent-up energy looking for a place to burst.
Saddleback Valley Christian guard Jonah Tolmaire has the Warriors trending up come playoff time.That explosion normally comes in offensive transition where he flies down the floor and gets into the paint where he can finish or find one of his open 3-point shooters.
“I like how I’m driving, attacking the basket and finishing more,” Tolmaire told Prep Hoops So-Cal of his season so far. “I need to improve more as a shooter from the perimeter.”
Inconsistency from deep has been the biggest question mark in Tolmaire’s game since he entered high school at JSerra. He’s a much better perimeter shooter off the bounce than he is off the catch, but that’s not because of a lack of work ethic.
Tolmaire, especially on this Warriors team, has been working on his catch-and-shoot 3-pointer due to SVC’s omnipresent inside advantage with big men Jordan Taylor and Tim Adetukasi.
“I think our biggest strengths are inside,” he said. “We have an inside-out game with Jordan Taylor and Jon Scherer, who is a good shooter. I think I’m doing well getting them the ball.”
Saddleback Valley Christian finished the season with a 23-5 record and a San Joaquin League championship despite losing its coach in early January. The Warriors have turned off all distractions and are focused on making a deep run in the CIF Southern Section Division 3AA playoffs.
“I think we have championship greatness in us,” Tolmaire said. “We just need to play to that every single game and we’ll be straight.”
Tolmaire said he’s hearing from a handful of NAIA schools and has an idea of what he’d like to see in a school for him to commit.
“I’m hearing from Menlo, Westmont and Concordia,” he said. “I’m interested in the campus, how the people are, how the basketball team is and if I fit in that program and how the academics are as far as what I’m going to major in.”