Chaminade and Sierra Canyon Forge New Ground
Jack Pollon
March 3, 2009
First-year varsity coaches at a new school are not supposed to win 20 games in a season and make the championship game of its playoff division.
Don't tell that to Chaminade of West Hills boys coach Todd Wolfson and Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth girls coach T.J. Knox.
Both coaches have their teams on the cusp of titles this week.
Wolfson, the youngest coach in the region at 24 years old is the bigger surprise considering the Eagles (20-11) were 2-3 on Dec. 18
and finished fourth in the Mission League.
Chaminade plays small-school power and eight time section champion Price of Los Angeles Thursday night in the Div. IV-A championship at Colony of Ontario at 8:30 p.m.
"All this wasn't expected but we knew this could happen," Wolfson said. "Our league is so good. It really prepared us for the playoffs."
The Eagles were battle-tested by Loyola of Los Angeles, Harvard-Westlake of Studio City and Crespi of Encino. Loyola and
Harvard-Westlake will be playing for championships of their own this weekend.
Having 6'10 Long Beach St.-bound forward Jules Montgomery hasn't hurt either.
Montgomery, along with junior guard Jamal McClerkin and several role players worked hard, bought into the new system and listened to its young but enthusiastic new coaches.
It all translated into an upset of top-seed Orange Lutheran on a last-second tip-in in the quarterfinals and a dominating 59-47
semifinal victory against Tri-Valley League champion Oaks Christian of Westlake Village.
Now the Eagles find themselves only 32 minutes away from raising their first banner since back to back championships in 1998 and 1999.
"This is great for the team, the school, the fans and everyone who has supported us the whole season," Wolfson said.
Knox has the lady Trailblazers in the Div. VI-AA championship game Saturday against Hesperia Christian at Mater Dei of Santa Ana at 9:30 a.m. but was expected to do so after the team reached the Div. V-A final last season.
Knox came to the up and coming small-school powerhouse after stints at Brentwood of Los Angeles and New Roads of Santa Monica.
All the top players returned and Sierra Canyon had a winning formula in place.
"There was no real pressure of me because the girls had talent," Knox said. "The school had expectations but not necessarily of me. I have been trying to build a system and develop better basketball IQ. We want to be more than just athletic on the floor."
Sierra Canyon will try and reverse a championship game loss to Crossroads of Santa Monica last season.
"I think the girls have learned and will reflect on their experience from last year," Knox said. "The best thing I did this year was
schedule some tough games in the regular season."
Brenda Kramer is the one key senior the Trailblazers can count on Saturday.
Other than Kramer it is a very young team, led by sophomores Jasmine Sneed, Kelly Schneider, Tori Wells and freshman Toni Oni and Khia
Jones.
If Knox can lead the young Trailblazers to a title this season, the pressure and expectations will surely come.
"It all depends on if we move up divisions and how we do in the state playoffs but the school offers support for the program typically not
garnered at other schools for girls basketball."