A high school championship weekend with memories galore
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A busy weekend of high school sports championships deserves a look back at some of the excitement and oddities.
In celebrating Westchester’s 16th City Section basketball championship on Friday night, Tajh Ariza was so full of adrenaline and energy that he appeared to knock over teammate Courtney Hutchins with a chest bump, sending Hutchins rolling over and over on the court like a bowling ball.
It turns out Hutchins deserves an Academy Award for acting.
“I wasn’t hurt. I was just happy,” Hutchins said Saturday morning. “I flop at times during practice. I flop during games.”
Said coach Dewitt Cotton: “They are just playing around. I see it every day at practice.”
In the City Section Open Division boys’ rivalry game between El Camino Real and Birmingham, the Patriots’ goalkeeper, Armando Cervantes, tackled El Camino Real’s Christopher Montenegro in the penalty box to prevent a goal. A yellow card was issued, a penalty kick was assessed and El Camino Real tied the score to send it into overtime before winning on a golden goal 2-1.
The best game of the weekend was Canyon Country Canyon needing triple overtime to defeat St. Bonaventure in the Southern Section Division 2A championship basketball game on a three-point bank shot by Noah Madrigal at the buzzer for an 89-86 win. Before that, Charlie Adams of St. Bonaventure made a three with 1.5 seconds left in regulation to send the game into the first overtime. Then there was the three by Canyon’s Isaac Yuhico with 21 seconds left in the first overtime to tie the score.
Ali Monfared, the 36-year-old head coach for Canyon, said, “It was the wildest game I’ve ever seen or been involved in. There was big shot after big shot after big shot.”
When Oak Park hired Will Burr from Viewpoint three years ago as girls’ basketball coach, it was like hiring Phil Jackson for the Lakers. He won his third consecutive Southern Section title with a win in the 2A final. He’s won four straight titles overall. Oak Park’s Delaney White is likely to be a player of the year in the third different playoff division. Her father, Larry, played basketball at Cal State Northridge and coached at Burbank Burroughs.
Imagine being down 17-0 after the first quarter of a championship game. That was the challenge facing Rolling Hills Prep girls’ basketball coach Moniquee Alexander, who had never been shut out in a quarter as a player or coach.
“This coach came up, ‘I would have been flipping tables,’” she said. “I always say it’s not the situation. It’s how you choose to react. I chose to remain calm.”
Rolling Hills Prep rallied to defeat Rosary 51-49 to win the 2A championship after Regan Enright made two free throws with one second left.
At the state wrestling championships in Bakersfield, Henry Aslikyan of Birmingham won the 113-pound division to become the 85th wrestler in state history to be a two-time champion. He’s a three-time City champion with one more year to go.
In 2023, when I first met him as a freshman, he was 5 feet 2 and 102 pounds. He has grown to 5-6.
“I’m already getting taller every day,” he said then. “I’m trying to gain weight. I don’t have much fat.”
He’s a true Mighty Mouse. He’s the first-ever two-time state champion from the City Section.
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