The second annual Tennyson High School summer varsity basketball tournament wrapped up on Sunday as five teams from the Bay Area competed against each other in a round-robin format event.
Hosted by varsity head coach Jeff Klenow of the Lancers for the Hayward Area Athletic League (HAAL), the three day tournament saw Mt. Eden of Hayward, Mission High School of San Jose, Menlo-Atherton High School, The Kings Academy of Sunnyvale and the host team Tennyson High School of Hayward each play six games which consisted of two 20-minute halves with a running clock.
Players were not able to foul out, as opposed to the past season where five fouls caused disqualification from the game. However, team fouls were still kept.
Mt. Eden defeated Menlo-Atherton 38-24 and The Kings Academy 47-35 on the final day of the event, while Mission High School pulled out a victory over Tennyson 45-33, and Menlo-Atherton blew out the host team Tennyson in the final game of the event 70-41.
Although no champion was crowned, Klenow explained tournaments such as these are always positive for teams during the summer, as it helps them get in more games and reps.
Mt. Eden finished with a 5-1 record and dominated opponents with their fast paced offense and non-stop pressure defense. Their sole loss came during a time when their top two returning scorers, Stevinaire Young and Noel Briones were participating in a basketball camp for local high school players at CSU East Bay.
“It’s a process, but we’re making progress,” coach Aaron O’Brien of Mt. Eden explained. “We’re getting better but we have a long ways to go.”
O’Brien saw this tournament as a time when his team could grow and develop as well as prepare for the upcoming tournament at De La Salle next weekend.
“This is a good little tune-up, we’re down some guys which is good so the other guys get to play a lot. Next week should be a good challenge,” O’Brien added.
Mt. Eden is coming off a season where they finished 20-8 overall and 10-6 in the Hayward Area Athletic League (HAAL) and finished fourth behind league champion Bishop O’Dowd, San Leandro and Castro Valley, who have been the last three teams to win the league championship.
The Monarchs lost their top two leading scorers from last season to graduation in center Shamil Sharma and point guard Kevin Clerkley, who averaged 14.8 and 12.2 points per game for them last season.
Mission High School and Menlo-Atherton both finished with 4-2 records. Menlo-Atherton head coach Mike Molieri is in his first year as head coach of the program and believes these games can help figure out who will make the team in the winter as well as instill his new system and emphasis on defense.
Molieri inherited a team that finished with a 13-13 overall record last season and finished fourth in the Peninsula-Ocean league.
The Bears lost their top three scorers to graduation in Ian Proulx, Miles Weiss and Dominic Tully who combined to average just over 34 points a game for Menlo-Atherton.
“We’re starting new with the program so the defense and trying to get some kind of understanding of the offense,” Molieri said when asked about things he tried to emphasize over the tournament.
Division four, The Kings Academy, only posted a record of 2-4, which would have placed them fourth but coach Drew Petity believes the record is deceiving for his team because being a small private school in a lower division his team does not always have the chance to face competition with the type of athletes this tournament possessed.
Petity believes he can use the success his team had in this tournament as a teaching point in the future when they face adversity.
“We’ve improved every game which is very good for us,” Petity said. “Mt. Eden and Mission put extreme pressure on the ball, very athletic. I think we did really well against that.”
The Lancers of Tennyson High struggled to a 0-6 record in the tournament as they were dealt with roster upheaval after losing seven seniors to graduation and are faced with new players getting use to playing with each other.
Overall, coaches were pleased with their team’s performances and the majority of them believe summer leagues and games are essential to the growth of a program.
“It’s huge, it’s vital, you’re not going to compete if you don’t do it in the East Bay,” O’Brien said. “There’s no substitute for the time in the gym.”
