Prep notebook: Basketball teams already psyched for next season

<p>The Empire’s high school basketball season ended abruptly Tuesday night when the area’s three remaining teams were eliminated in the first round of the NorCal Regional playoffs.</p><p>Suddenly, it was time to look ahead to next year. And given the talent returning to many Empire schools, a look to the future might help ease the pain of season-ending losses.</p><p>The Casa Grande boys’ basketball team, for example, will return eight players, including three starters, after posting a 17-11 record and losing in the first round of the North Coast Section playoffs.</p><p>Among the returning starters are junior guard Joey Rodriguez, a first-team all-Sonoma County league pick, and junior forward Nick Sherry, a second-team all-SCL selection.</p><p>Casa Grande isn’t alone. Only five of the 10 players named to the SCL’s first- and second-team all-league squads are seniors. In addition, the SCL’s MVP, Analy’s Max Fujii, and the Defensive Player of the Year, Analy’s Eli Alcantar, are both juniors.</p><p>“I really think in the SCL every team is going to be better,” Casa Grande coach James Forni said. “Everyone is going to be returning a lot of firepower.”</p><p>But the SCL won’t be the only league returning a horde of talented players. For example:</p><p>The Montgomery boys’ team will return four starters after posting a 23-8 record and reaching the NorCal playoffs. The returnees include first-team all-North Bay League picks in 6-foot-9 junior center Ben Freeland and junior guard Alec Kobre. In addition, junior guard Quentin Mendoza, a second-team all-league selection, was the NBL’s co-Defensive Player of the Year.</p><p>NBL champion Cardinal Newman will return junior guards Xavier McCall and Bobby Sharp, the league’s co-MVPs.</p><p>The Casa Grande girls’ team will return sophomores Stephanie Sack and Gretchen Harrigan — both first-team, all-SCL selections — after posting a 20-10 record and reaching the NCS quarterfinal.</p><p>The Montgomery girls’ team, which went 24-8 and won the NBL title, will return junior forward Anandi Jimenez, the NBL MVP, and junior guard Sara Fitzgerald, a first-team all-league pick.</p><p>The Santa Rosa girls’ team, which went 18-10, will bring back a pair of first-team, all-NBL players in juniors McKennan Bertsch and Shawnee Phillips.</p><p>Ursuline (17-12) will return the NBL’s leading scorer, junior Jordan Henry, and second-team all-NBL pick McKenzie Mangino.</p><p>’HOUNDS RUN CONTINUES</p><p>When Healdsburg sophomore Adam Hendrickson earned a seventh-place medal at the CIF State Wrestling Championships in Bakersfield on Saturday, he continued an impressive run for the Greyhounds’ program.</p><p>Since 2002, seven of the 11 Empire wrestlers who have earned state medals have been from Healdsburg.</p><p>Empire wrestlers have won 33 medals since the first state championships were held in 1973. With Hendrickson’s medal, Healdsburg tied Ukiah on the area’s all-time medal count with nine. No other school has more than three medals.</p><p>Hendrickson, a 135-pounder, went 4-2 at state, losing, 5-2, to the eventual state champion, Central Catholic’s David Ferry, in the quarterfinals. Hendrickson’s other loss was a 7-1 setback to Clovis East’s Moses Quezada, who finished fifth.</p><p>Given his opponents, perhaps it’s not surprising that he paid a price for his medal, leaving Bakersfield with a face that looked as if he’d wrestled a rose bush.</p><p>“I don’t know why but this year I seemed to get a lot of facial wounds,” Hendrickson said Saturday. “It feels like I’ve got a golf ball under my eye.”</p><p>VIKINGS AMONG ELITE</p><p>The Montgomery softball team is one of 12 teams to be placed on the “On the Bubble” list on the CalHiSports preseason state top 20.</p><p>The Vikings return seven starters from last year’s team, which went 26-2 and advanced to the North Coast Section Division II title game, where they lost, 1-0, to Pinole Valley. Pinole, which went 24-3 last year, is also on the bubble list.</p><p>The Vikings are led by senior pitcher Taylor Stroud, a Sacramento State signee who went 19-2 with a 0.25 ERA last year. She struck out 174 and walked 18 in 139 innings. Montgomery has a 67-16 record during Stroud’s career.</p><p>Montgomery is 2-0 this season. The Vikings beat Petaluma, 2-1, in nine innings and beat Ukiah, 3-0.</p><p>“We’re kind of like everyone else at this point,” Montgomery coach Mike Malvino said. “We’re trying to get the rust off and hopefully by the time league starts we’ll be back to where we were.”</p>