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La Mirada High School’s Julien Gomez.
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March 8, 2023
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By Loren Kopff • @LorenKopff on Twitter
When one looks at the 2022-2023 basketball season for the Gahr High girls team and the Whitney High boys team, you can write the “who would have thought” question in your notebook. Both teams ended long droughts of getting back to a CIF-Southern Section divisional championship game. For the La Mirada High boys, it was a second straight trip back to the title game. League champions were crowned to the Artesia High and La Mirada boys and Gahr and Whitney girls. Here are the newest members of the 2022-2023 HMG-Community News basketball All-Area Teams.
BOYS BASKETBALL
FIRST TEAM
Aaron Banks (Artesia High)
Sean Cervantes (La Mirada High)
Julien Gomez (La Mirada High)
Zion Staples (Artesia High)
Ethan Wong (Whitney High)
SECOND TEAM
Jacob Bayla (Valley Christian High)
Dayvon Gates (Gahr High)
Tobeanna Ozoagu (Cerritos High)
Shay Pema (Cerritos High)
Jakhari Ramey (Norwalk High)
THIRD TEAM
Steven Anderson Jr. (Artesia High)
Miles Harvey (Valley Christian High)
Athan Sierra (La Mirada High)
David Song (Whitney High)
Evan Spurlin-Renfroe (Gahr High)
HONORABLE MENTION
Christian Carreon (Whitney High)
Dominic DelaCruz (Cerritos High)
Vincent Hernandez (Norwalk High)
Michael Saucedo (John Glenn High)
T.J. Waters (Valley Christian High)
PLAYERS TO LOOK FOR IN 2023-2024 SEASON
Joshua Martinez (Artesia High)
Masiah Morizane (Artesia High)
Jaylen Reed (Artesia High)
Tyler Robinson (Artesia High)
Osinachi Agaranna (Cerritos High)
Benson Cho (Cerritos High)
Jaden Ribac (Cerritos High)
Luke Rigor (Cerritos High)
Jared Joseph (Gahr High)
Uchenna Okoli (Gahr High)
Joshua Pearson (Gahr High)
Trey Reyes (Gahr High)
Noah Taylor (Gahr High)
Sean DeLeon (John Glenn High)
Nathan Serrano (John Glenn High)
Christopher Cuevas (La Mirada High)
Chris Perez (La Mirada High)
Morgan Smith (La Mirada High)
Michael Torres (La Mirada High)
Isaiah Valenzuela (La Mirada High)
Aaron Reyes (Norwalk High)
Ryan Caracoza (Valley Christian High)
Josiah James (Valley Christian High)
Gavin Stahl (Valley Christian High)
Morgan Marks (Whitney High)
Peter Poitras (Whitney High)
Sakeef Sekender (Whitney High)
Joseph Whitaker (Whitney High)
Player of the Year: Two season down, two more to go for La Mirada superstar Julien Gomez, who gets this award. Gomez is the next La Mirada player to etch his name as one of the best to put on a Matadores jersey. Gomez led the area with nearly 900 points, easily over 300 more than the next area player. Through 30 games, Gomez was leading the Matadores with 236 rebounds and 45 steals and was second with 51 assists.
“When it’s all said and done, Julien is going to be the all-time leading scorer in La Mirada history,” said La Mirada head coach Randy Oronoz. “He might break it next year. He’s already at 1,800 points. Our thing is just to keep him humble and keep him working hard; not let him get complacent. I think he has the character to do that as a young man.”
Coach of the Year: One of the biggest turnarounds in the area’s history is the job done by Whitney coach Joseph Webber. In his second season of his second stint with the Wildcats, Webber coached the team to a 22-10 record, which included a 13-2 start to begin the season. Webber also guided the Wildcats to a CIF-Southern Section Division 5AA semifinal appearance, the farthest the program had gone since 1987 and over the last 26 seasons, no Whitney team had won more than 18 games. Last season, the Wildcats went 8-16 and missed the playoffs for the seventh straight season.
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Whitney High’s Kylie Wang.
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GIRLS BASKETBALL
FIRST YEAR
Keilani Ganancial (Norwalk High)
Kameryn Mitchell (Gahr High)
Lauren Teramoto (Gahr High)
Haylie Wang (Whitney High)
Kylie Wang (Whitney High)
SECOND TEAM
Carissa Kamstra (Valley Christian High)
Christine Ho (Gahr High)
Layla Lacorte (Whitney High)
Amanda Rangel (Norwalk High)
Mia Rivera (Cerritos High)
THIRD TEAM
Jody Colbert (Gahr High)
Jirah Domingo (La Mirada High)
Molly Fortney (Valley Christian High)
Mady Macaraeg (Whitney High)
Kaitlyn Sugita (Cerritos High)
HONORABLE MENTION
Jael Arreguin (La Mirada High)
Julieta Castellanos (Norwalk High)
Ashlee Chung (Artesia High)
Areli Gonzalez (Norwalk High)
Rose Felix (John Glenn High)
PLAYERS TO LOOK FOR IN 2023-2024 SEASON
Kaelah Daniels (Artesia High)
Arianne Delgado (Artesia High)
Mya Reamer (Artesia High)
Mailee Dizon (Cerritos High)
Cameron Lacorte (Cerritos High)
Ambar Multani (Cerritos High)
Kishan Saberon (Cerritos High)
Sophie Watanabe (Cerritos High)
Simar Sogi (Gahr High)
Maritza Corona (John Glenn High)
Emily Garcia (John Glenn High)
Janessa Leal (John Glenn High)
Aaliyah Ramirez (John Glenn High)
Emily Gonzalez (La Mirada High)
Nayeli Tamayo (La Mirada High)
Janii McGarrah (Norwalk High)
Chayse Chambers (Valley Christian High)
Jocelyn Tani (Valley Christian High)
Jada Thompson (Valley Christian High)
Aniyah Peoples (Valley Christian High)
Rachel Moyher (Whitney High)
Allie Yamaguchi (Whitney High)
Player of the Year: Whitney girls basketball has been a solid program since the 2007-2008 campaign because of such talented players like junior Kylie Wang. She scored nearly 350 points and was one of five area players to eclipse the 300-point total this season. But Wang is a true all-around player who can put up high numbers in assists, rebounds and steals. She scored a career-high 31 points in the season-opener at Santa Fe High and was in double figures in 11 of her last 13 games, helping the ‘Cats to a share of the 605 League title.
Coach of the Year: The true Cinderella story came out of Gahr where first-year head coach Al Howard took a team that went 5-23 last season and transformed that group to a 26-8 campaign this season, a share of the Mid-Cities League title and a berth in the Division 5AA championship game. The 26 victories are the most for the Gladiators in over 26 seasons, and the league title was the program’s first since 1999. At one point, Gahr was sitting at 5-5 but quickly reeled off eight straight victories.
