Prep spotlight: Good luck picking an EBAL boys basketball favorite
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EBAL BOYS HOOPS: MOST COMPETITIVE SEASON YET?
The East Bay Athletic League has long been considered one of the region’s toughest boys basketball leagues.
But in recent years, the cream usually rose to the top, whether that be De La Salle, San Ramon Valley or Dougherty Valley.
So far this season, the EBAL has shown that it can be had by just about anybody.
While De La Salle, SRV and Dougherty Valley still boast strong rosters, the parity in the EBAL has been why this season has been so interesting.
On Tuesday, Monte Vista handedly defeated presumptive EBAL favorite California on the road. Livermore, which has been at the bottom of the league for more than a decade, recently beat another preseason EBAL contender in Amador Valley, snapping a 121-game EBAL losing streak in the process.
Not to mention schools like Granada, Dublin and Foothill, which boast playoff-ready rosters and experienced head coaches.
“I think our league is so good. The coaching, the talent is really good as everybody knows.” Monte Vista coach Nick Jones said. “I think we can win every game going forward and I think we can lose every game going forward. There’s so much parity. I think there’s probably seven teams that probably think they can win the league. Anybody can pull the upset on any night. So I just think every night you have to buckle up and be ready to go.”
The latest Bay Area News Group rankings include eight of the league’s 10 teams, with California the highest at No. 5. Every team in the EBAL has double-digit wins, with a strong possibility that every school could make the section playoffs.
“There is no one clear cut favorite,” California coach Steve Ohlmeyer said. “But there’s got to be at least half the league or more that if things fall the right way, they can be caught with a league championship.”
– Nathan Canilao
MITTY: NICK YORKE TALKS HALL INDUCTION, UPCOMING MLB SEASON
After sweating his speech all night – which he got some help from his fiance in writing – Nick Yorke was all smiles after being inducted into the Archbishop Mitty Hall of Fame last Saturday.
“I was telling (Mitty baseball coach Brian) Yocke, I’d much rather play baseball in front of 50 million people than to say a speech in front of 100,” Yorke said.
The former Mitty baseball standout joined Zlatko Bijelic, Haley Jones, Roshan Mehdizadeh, Don Schwartz and John Mosunic as the individuals honored. The 1971 football, 2014 girls volleyball and 2015 girls volleyball teams were also recognized.
“It means a lot,” Yorke said. “It’s super fun for me. I come back a lot. I come hit. I have a very good relationship with my coaches and the people here; I come back almost weekly to come work out with them and hit with them.
“That’s what makes Mitty so special. Any given random Thursday, you can walk out to any sort of field and you have athletes, professional athletes, D1 athletes that want to come back and train with their coaches that they went to high school with, with their buddies they went to high school with. The community, it’s unbelievable.”
Yorke is getting ready for his sixth professional baseball season. He was the No. 17 overall pick in the 2020 MLB draft and debuted with the Pirates in 2024.
He has yet to establish himself as an MLB regular, though. He spent 11 games with Pittsburgh after his debut late in 2024 but was optioned to Triple-A to begin the 2025 season. He played 103 games in Triple-A and 22 with the Pirates last year.
“I just want to get better in every single aspect I can,” Yorke said. “I think I went into spring training last year with a little uncomfortability. And my goal this year is to go out and earn a spot. I’m going into spring training a little more prepared, and my goal is to take someone’s job, because it’s not mine.”
Yorke further stated his goal is to make the Pirates’ opening-day roster. He plans to report to spring training in Florida on Feb. 1.
– Christian Babcock
PIEDMONT: DOES THIS COACH GET SLEEP?
Piedmont girls basketball coach Bryan Gardere absolutely loves the sport.
He loves it so much that he has two head coaching jobs. Gardere not only coaches Piedmont’s girls basketball team, but he is also the head women’s coach at nearby Laney College.
While he admits he could use a good night’s rest every so often, Gardere said he has been enjoying the grind of the season.
“It’s been fun. I truly enjoy it,” Gardere said. “It is a lot of work. I find myself watching film at all hours of the morning.”
The long hours certainly haven’t reflected negatively on the court. Piedmont, No. 11 in the Bay Area News Group’s latest rankings, is 10-2 and is coming off a gigantic win this week over rival Bishop O’Dowd. Laney College is an impressive 13-3 and undefeated through four conference games.
“It’s a pretty crazy schedule, but because it’s hoop, we love it,” Gardere said. “I truly love basketball. Overall, it’s been really good and I’m happy about both teams.”
– Nathan Canilao
LOS GATOS: COACH ADDRESSES NEW ERA
Los Gatos girls basketball lost a lot from its Central Coast Section Division I championship-winning team.
The Wildcats are without Nicole Steiner, one of the best players in school history who now plies her trade at Cal State Fullerton, averaging 11.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game as a freshman. Frontcourt mate Ashley Childers, another all-league standout, now plays at Cornell.
“There is no replacing the two of them as athletes, as people, definitely as basketball players,” Los Gatos coach Sara Quilici Giles said. “So now it’s reshaping and reframing and letting everybody get more comfortable with their new roles, because even our one returning starter, her role is vastly different this year.”
With only point guard Lola Cuevas back in the starting lineup, Los Gatos has experienced some growing pains early this season. The Wildcats are 8-5 overall and lost a league matchup 37-33 to Fremont-Sunnyvale, snapping what had been a 41-game winning streak across five years in the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League’s De Anza Division.
They got back on track with a 41-28 win over Milpitas, improving them to 2-1 in league play and third in the division. As Los Gatos gets ready to face Gunn on Friday, the Cats are keeping their goals simple as they look to finish atop the De Anza for the fourth straight year.
“It’s kind of nice that that’s over with, and now there’s no pressure,” Quilici Giles said of the streak. “This was a really good team win. When we had Nicole and Ashley, sometimes only three or four people at most would score in a game. They handled a lot of the shooting and the baskets. And in every single game we played this year, a minimum of five to eight people have scored.
“That shows we’re more of a team. We’ve had three or four different leading scorers, we’ve had four different leading rebounders. It’s really nice that on any given night, anyone can step up and figure out who has the hot hand, and we love to feed that person. So it’s different, but it’s also unique. And it’s kind of a new era and a new wave, and I think we’re all here for it.”
– Christian Babcock
ST. MARY’S-BERKELEY: BASKETBALL TEAM READY FOR BOSCO
If there’s anything that St. Mary’s has proven this season, it’s that the Panthers are not scared of anyone.
The Berkeley school has played the likes of Salesian, Granada, Dublin, Oakland Tech, Clayton Valley and Amador Valley.
But next week, St. Mary’s will have its biggest challenge of the season when it plays SoCal powerhouse St. John Bosco at the Crush in the Valley showcase at Napa Valley College.
Rest assured, the Panthers will not be scared of the challenge.
“It’s all about wanting to be in those games,” St. Mary’s coach Marshall Collins said. “I owe it to my seniors to be in those types of games. I owe it to my juniors to put them in front of good competition, so they can be in the spotlight.
“We’ve played all the big hitters. So when we got the call to play Bosco, of course we said yes. It’s a measuring stick. So in a few weeks, we would have already played Salesian and Bosco – two teams that could be in the Open Division Final Four. Now, when we get to our Division, there’s nothing those teams can do that we haven’t already seen before.”
– Nathan Canilao
ACALANES: SENIOR TIES OWN RECORD
Acalanes guard Lexi Le is coming into her own this season.
After being a role player last season, the 5-foot-8 point guard has been lighting up opponents with her hot shooting.
On Tuesday, Le tied her own school record for most made 3-pointers in a game when she hit eight shots from beyond the arc to lead Acalanes to a 63-17 win over Las Lomas.
“Lexi is a great leader and an example of one of the hardest working players on the team,” Acalanes coach Margaret Gartner said earlier this season. “She’s just being Lexi and that really brings confidence to everybody.”
– Nathan Canilao
MILPITAS: OPEN DIVISION TEAM ONCE AGAIN?
Milpitas was the story of the season in South Bay boys basketball last year.
The Trojans went 24-5, finishing first in the SCVAL De Anza and winning two of three games to place third in the CCS Open Division.
So what do they have for an encore?
This year, the Trojans are a somewhat surprising 14-1 team and are undefeated early in the league season at 3-0.
They’ve even surprised their coach.
“This was already ingrained in this group,” Champ Wrencher said. “They were 24-0 as a JV team, and a lot of them have been playing together for a while, so there’s natural chemistry out there. Honestly, I didn’t know it’d be at this level. I thought we’d be a really scrappy team, and we’d lose some close games and compete really well. (I thought) we’d still be .500, but I didn’t think we’d beat some of the people that we’ve beaten and be on this run. So I’m a little surprised.”
So can Milpitas be an Open Division team again this year?
Time will tell. But the odds are looking better by the week.
“That’s a good question,” Wrencher said. “The goal is always to win the next game. That’s all we talk about. Everything resets after this. And then when we get to the end of the season, we’ll play wherever they put us. There could be a preference, but I’m not gonna say. We’ll always just play where they put us.
“It would be nice to play D1 CCS. But the automatic NorCal berth, and that status as an Open team is just hard to deny. And to me, that speaks for itself. But a trophy for a section championship is something that will stay around for a long time. Nobody may remember an invite to an Open.”
– Christian Babcock
PITTSBURG: TWO SOCAL FOOTBALL TITANS VISIT IN 2026
Pittsburg’s football team is not backing down from any challengers across the state.
The Pirates released their nonleague schedule on Thursday, which includes a home game against national powerhouses St. John Bosco and Mission Viejo.
Not to mention, the East Bay school will also have tough NorCal challenges in perennial Sac-Joaquin Section contender Monterey Trail as well as James Logan and Los Gatos.
“Having the greatest opponent Pittsburg has ever had come to Pirate Stadium, that’s going to be a great high school experience,” Pittsburg coach Charlie Ramirez said.
– Nathan Canilao