Talented boys basketball field set for Casa Grande's Callan tournament

One of the top high school holiday basketball tournaments in the Redwood Empire tips off Thursday as Casa Grande hosts the 12th annual Brett Callan Memorial Tournament featuring eight teams, including four from Sonoma County. The tournament continues Friday and wraps up on Saturday.

Thursday's opening-round action includes Napa against Windsor at 3:30 p.m., Washington (San Francisco) against Tamalpais (Mill Valley) at 5 p.m., Del Campo (Fair Oaks) against Montgomery at 6:30 p.m. and Analy against Casa Grande at 8 p.m. Games take place on the Casa Grande campus in Petaluma.

“The field has been consistently good the past four or five years,” tournament director Rick Duarte said. “It is a competitive tournament.”

Teams that win Thursday will move into the championship bracket, while losing teams will go into the consolation bracket.

The championship bracket final will be Saturday at 6 p.m., with the consolation final three hours earlier that same day. After all the games are completed on Saturday, an all-tournament team will be selected.

The field is wide open with a few teams that are coming in hot. Tamalpais (4-1) is the defending tournament champion and has most of its squad returning from last season. Windsor (4-2) features 6-foot-7 brothers Riley and Justin Smith dominating the paint.

Local teams Analy (2-5), Montgomery (3-3) and Casa Grande (1-5) will strive to notch a few marquee early-season nonleague wins. The Gauchos finished seventh in the tournament last season.

“We have gotten off to a slow start this year and we are a work in progress. We are still finding ourselves,” Duarte said. “A lot of times the Callan tournament is a springboard for Casa to turn around its season.”

The Vikings recently won the Arcata Invitation basketball tournament and look to keep their momentum rolling.

Del Campo (4-1) and Napa (4-4) are first-time participants, while Washington (3-4) is a returning school.

The tournament is hosted by Casa Grande annually in memory of Brett Callan, a former Gauchos player who died as a passenger in a reckless-driving car crash in 2004. Each year, Callan's parents, LJ and Julie, along with Brett's sister, Heather, visit each team's locker room to tell Brett's story in the hope it will help prevent a similar tragedy.

Former Gauchos coach James Forni began the tournament in Callan's name the year after the teen's death. Forni, a popular Casa coach and teacher, died of cancer in 2015 at the age of 36. Current third-year Casa Grande coach Jake Lee played for and eventually succeeded Forni as the Gauchos' head coach.

“It was coach Forni's idea to start this tournament and it has just carried on. It's a labor of love for all involved,” Duarte said. “It's a tournament with a message.”