Rebuilding or reloading? That’s the question Santa Barbara High boys basketball coach David Bregante is trying to answer as his team starts a new season.
The Dons are coming off a banner season that saw them go 26-4, go unbeaten in the Channel League, advance to the CIF-SS semifinals and win a game in the state tournament.
“A few weeks ago somebody asked me: ‘Are you going to be in the rebuilding mode or reloading mode?’” Bregante told the gathering at the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table press luncheon at Harry’s Plaza Café. “I started thinking about it. We lost three all-league first team players, lost the MVP of the league, lost 70 percent of our scoring, lost about 80 percent of our rebounding, lost about 90 percent of our shot blocking. So we got a lot to replace.”
The Dons are off to a good start, winning their first two games.
“I got a great group of kids. They believe in themselves. I believe in them,” Bregante said. “We’re going to show up for every game. We’re going to play hard. We’re not going to be intimidated by anybody.
“And I’ll be able to answer the question in February some time.”
San Marcos: Coach Landon Boucher has been impressed with varsity newcomer, junior Ryan McCarthy.
“The kid really lives for basketball,” he said. “He doesn’t view putting in the hours as work. He sees it as fun.”
McCarthy scored 14 in his varsity debut and followed with a 20-point performance, in which he was a perfect 6 of 6 on 3-pointers.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Westmont: Women’s assistant coach Selena Ho rattled off plenty of reasons why fans should take in a game at Murchison Gym.
“If you haven’t come to see us play, I’m going to give you a couple of reasons you should,” she started. “We’re balanced, we have two people averaging in double figures and three people averaging at least 9.1 points We’re deep, we got seven players averaging 20 minutes per game or more and eight averaging 17 minutes or more. We’re really unselfish, of 198 field goals made, 121 have been assisted.
“Probably the best thing,” she continued, “we can really score, we average 78 points per game. We’re high octane, we love to share the ball, we love to pass, we can really make open shots. We’re balanced and deep.”
The NAIA 14th-ranked and undefeated Warriors (7-0) open Golden State Athletic Conference play on Tuesday at third-ranked Vanguard. They return home to face Concordia on Saturday.
UCSB Men: After traveling to Kansas, Florida and Alaska, the Gauchos return to the Thunderdome on Thursday for a game against Seattle.
“We’re looking forward to being back home this week,” director of basketball operations Brandon Veltri said.
Veltri noted that having one of the best post players in the country in Alan Williams and a pair of talented point guards in Zalmico Harmon and Eric Childress make it fun to coach.
FUND RAISING
Rich Nahas, general manager at Glen Annie Golf Course, said the Touchstone Foundation, Glen Annie’s golf management committee, brought in $2,250 for the high school golf programs through a raffle. The golf teams at Santa Barbara High, San Marcos, Dos Pueblos, Carpinteria and Bishop Diego will benefit from the effort.
The raffle for a set of Taylor Made/adidas golf clubs was won by Lupita Lopez of Carpinteria High.
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