ALL-CENTRAL COAST SECTION
Player of the Year
HALEY JONES, ARCHBISHOP MITTY
By HAROLD ABEND
Prep2Prep
Just about the only thing All-Everything Haley Jones can’t do is dunk, and there is only one award left for her to win before she leaves Mitty to head up the El Camino Real to The Farm.
Well, her soon-to-be Stanford teammate Fran Belibi can jam, and she even won the McDonalds All-America slam dunk contest against boys with Jones as the prop for her acrobatic slamma-jamma.
Now, Belibi can throw one down once again, but this time it can be in honor of her future teammate Jones being named the Prep2Prep Central Coast Section Girls Basketball Player of the Year for the third straight season.
“It’s always an amazing feeling to be recognized locally and a different sense of pride because it’s almost like part of my hometown,” said Jones when informed she was a Prep2Prep winner a third time. “To go out on this note again is a great feeling.”
With the Prep2Prep honor, the 6-1 Jones, who can play any position on the court, has a wheelbarrow full of awards, and here they are:
- WABC National Player of the Year
- Naismith National Player of the Year
- Morgan Wooten National Player of the
- Two-time California Gatorade Player of the Year and 2019 finalist with two others for the national honor
- Cal-Hi Sports Ms. Basketball State Player of the Year
- USA Today First Team All-American
- World Champion – Gold Medal winner with USA Basketball U17 team
- One of five players named to the All World Team
- ESPNW No. 1 recruit in the nation in the Class of 2019
- Two-time San Francisco Chronicle Metro Player of the Year
- Two-time Bay Area News Group Player of the Year and the 2017 South Bay/Peninsula BANG Player of the Year
- Three-time Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area Central Coast Section Player of the Year
- Three-time West Catholic Athletic League Player of the Year
- MVP Surf ‘N Slam tournament in San Diego
- All Tournament 2019 Nike TOC Clare Droesch Division
Along the way Jones was the first female athlete to announce her commitment live on national television when ESPN covered the signing of her letter of intent to Stanford. Sports Illustrated did a feature on Jones about her being the ESPN top recruit, and Bay Area television stations KPIX and KRON did features on her.
Jones leaves Mitty as the all-time leading scorer, surpassing Olympian and 1995-96 Cal-Hi Sports Female State Athlete of the Year Kerri Walsh-Jennings, and WNBA All-Star Danielle Robinson, plus others. Her 2,126 points is 248 points ahead of No. 2 Walsh-Jennings. Her .638 career field goal percentage is No. 1 in school history. She also went over 1,000 rebounds in her career and her 1,046 is fourth in Mitty history.
This past season, head coach Sue Phillips turned her loose in some games and limited her time in a lot of blowout wins just like she has all four years Jones has been a Monarch, but she still averaged 26.1 points, 12.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 3.7 steals and 2.8 blocks per game. She had 23 double-doubles in a 25-3 season and her high-water mark for points was 43 against WCAL rival Saint Francis and her best game on the boards was 22 rebounds versus Christian Brothers of Sacramento.
The only thing she didn’t do was win a CIF state championship but that can’t all be on her shoulders after what she accomplished at Mitty. In her four years at Mitty, the Monarchs only lost 11 games, and that included going to the Nike TOC four times to meet the nation’s top teams, plus they played in other top tournaments in her four years, including Jones leading Mitty to a West Coast Jamboree Platinum Division title two seasons ago immediately after she led the Monarchs to the title of the top division of the TOC.
“I guess that’s the one thing left off my resume but I gave it all I had and I have no regrets,” said Jones about not winning a state championship. “It might hurt but I’m not disappointed in my performance.”
Through it all, Jones rarely had a dour look on her face, never complained about the referees’ calls or the fact she was getting beaten up by double- and triple-teams against top-notch competition. She just played and played and played and never lost her cool.
“Haley is cool as a cucumber and epitomizes how in our program we don’t get caught up in adversity or drama on the court,” Phillips said.
We didn’t have to ask Jones why she chose Stanford. If you get an offer because you have the grades and the game to warrant one, and Haley obviously has both, and then can pass Stanford’s rigorous pre-entrance requirements to make the offer official, it’s pretty hard to turn down a prospective degree that could be worth millions in earnings potential.
“There are a multitude of reasons I chose Stanford,” Haley responded. “I took all five official visits and got this feeling of this is where I’m supposed to be,”
“The most important reasons are I get to play for a Hall of Fame coach, the academics are second to none, and it’s the total college experience,” continued Jones, who plans on studying sports psychology, and after a goal of playing professionally she would like to be a sports psychologist for a professional team or a sports broadcaster.
Part of winning the Gatorade award involves academics and work in the community besides having prowess on the court.
For Jones it was tutoring kids at Holy Cross elementary school, volunteering as a coach for Phillips’ San Jose Cagers third through sixth-grade teams, plus the Honor Roll student was an Ambassador at Mitty where she conducted incoming freshman tours where kids shadowed her during the day, plus she did campus tours during open houses for adults as well.
Gatorade gives its winners grant money and the past two years when she has been their California Player of the Year, Jones has donated all the money to the Boys and Girls Clubs, specifically the Santa Cruz chapter in her hometown.
Basketball has been in her blood right from the beginning. Jones began playing organized basketball in the third grade but she’s been around basketball before then since her parents, Patrick and Monique Jones, both played basketball in college and were the co-head coaches of the Santa Cruz girls team when she was even younger.
“I was always running around the gym,” she said.
She hasn’t stopped running either. This spring Jones joined the Mitty track team as a triple-jumper, and although she didn’t qualify for the CCS meet she texted “yep yep” when asked if she had fun.
Jones ended her high school basketball career last month at the 2019 USA Basketball 3x3 U18 National Championships at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs where the only invitee from California was on the second-place team.
Phillips has had to say goodbye to some top talent and send them off to college like Walsh-Jennings and Robinson, and with Jones it’s no different.
“We will miss Haley tremendously in more ways than just one,” Phillips remarked. “We’ll miss her not only from a basketball productivity standpoint, but also as a leader and terrific teammate as well.”
Graduation is right around the corner and then Jones takes up residence on The Farm, but not before Prep2Prep sends her off with a final parting gift as its Central Coast Section Girls Basketball Player of the Year.
Coach of the Year
JOHN PAYE, MENLO SCHOOL
John Paye of Menlo is the Prep2Prep CCS Coach of the Year.
By HAROLD ABEND
Prep2Prep
When Menlo School won the CIF Division II state championship in March with a 70-63 victory over Rolling Hills Prep-San Pedro, the Prep2Prep story was titled “History re-visited with Paye leading Menlo to CIF D2 title.”
While it was historic for Menlo as a team and Paye as a coach when they won another state championship, Prep2Prep is going to add a little more to history to the storied career of Paye by naming him as the Central Coast Section Girls Basketball Coach of the Year.
“I feel honored to be selected coach of the year in the CCS,” Paye said when told he was the Prep2Prep choice for the award. “Our section has come a long way with the skill and talent level of girls basketball. I think it’s been the hard work of our CCS coaches that have helped our teams compete with the best teams in the country.”
Paye brought a young team to Sacramento that was less experienced than a Rolling Hills Prep team that was making its third straight appearance at the Golden 1 Center, and many of the courtside analysts thought the previous experience of playing on an NBA court would be an advantage, but it wasn’t as Menlo and Paye added a fourth CIF state title to their respective resumes.
Two of the young players on the team that played keys roles in the state title game victory also received Prep2Prep individual honors. Sharon Nejad won the Freshman of the Year award and honorable mention all-CCS, and sophomore Avery Lee was named all-CCS second team. A third underclass player, sophomore Coco Layton, who is all-CCS honorable mention, finished with a double-double 17 points and 11 rebounds, and along the way broke the Division II record for three-pointers with five.
What made it historic for Menlo and the Paye family is the Knights had won three previous state championships, but the last one was in 1991 as part of a three-year state championship run in Division V under the old enrollment-based system that saw standout guard Kate Paye (now an assistant coach at Stanford) being coached by her older brother.
This year’s team was another family affair for the Payes. Menlo sophomore Georgia Paye, the youngest of Paye’s three daughters, as well as his niece and freshman Sylvie Venuto, were on the team
Coach Paye actually has five state championship rings. He won one as a player on the 1983 Menlo team that won the Division V state championship. Even coming from the smallest enrollment division for the state championships, Paye was chosen all-state third team by Cal-Hi Sports for all enrollment divisions. He already had been honored by Cal-Hi Sports in 1982 as their Mr. Football State Player of the Year.
“After getting my first four state championships in less than 10 years it was very rewarding to finally get my fifth one after a 28-year wait,” Paye said. “This one was the most meaningful. To be able to share a state championship with my youngest daughter now, and with my sister, is very, very special.”
After the 1995 season, Paye, who went on to be a quarterback at Stanford after graduating from Menlo, and then had a stint with the San Francisco 49ers, took a hiatus from coaching.
He came back for the 2008-09 season largely in part because his oldest daughter Emma was going to be playing, and the once storied program was on the skids. Not surprisingly he turned it around in a hurry with a 24-8 overall record that included a 10-0 finish in league that captured the West Bay–Skyline crown.
“I have to highlight my oldest daughter Emma from the class of 2011, and my middle daughter Hannah from the class of 2016,” Paye said. “They set the stage by resurrecting Menlo’s girls basketball program that was in tatters after going 7-16 in 2008.”
More history was resurrected when Kate Paye returned to Menlo to address the team late in the season.
“My sister came to practice just before the start of the playoffs to give the team a motivational speech and introduced us to Stanford’s BENERGY,” Paye remarked. “In short our player bench was to provide energy to their teammates on the court to give them more energy. That’s why we have BENERGY engraved on our state championship rings.”
With his youngest daughter having two years left at Menlo and his niece with three more years, the family affair will continue.
Paye now joins middle daughter Hannah, who received Prep2Prep All-CCS honors in 2016.
Congratulations to John Paye of Menlo School, the 2019 Prep2Prep Central Coast Section Girls Basketball Coach of the Year.
FIRST TEAM ALL-CCS
Klara Astrom, Pinewood
Position: Forward
Year: Senior
The Yale-bound Astrom, who has ambitions of becoming a doctor, and who played any position on defense she had to, had very similar numbers to teammate Hannah Jump, who edged her out for Prep2Prep Senior of the Year. On the season she finished second to Jump with a 16.0 ppg average and 83 three-pointers, led the team in rebounding (6.9 rpg) despite standing just 5-9 while adding 1.6 assists and 1.3 steals a game as well. She was a San Francisco Chronicle all-Metro and Bay Area News Group all-Bay Area first-team selection and finishes her four-year varsity career with the Panthers with 1,458 points, 764 rebounds, 189 assists and 182 steals. Plus she nailed 217 three-pointers and shot 39 percent from beyond the arc and 50 percent overall. “Klara is a hard worker who is self motivated to become the best and she permeated that trait throughout the team,” Pinewood Coach Doc Scheppler remarked. “In the four games we lost this year her absence due to foul trouble hindered our success.”
Madelene Ennis, St. Ignatius
Position: Forward
Year: Senior
Ennis probably thought her honor as one of 14 San Francisco Italian Athletic Club Athletes of the Year was her final award this season, but she was wrong, because now besides that prestigious honor she is a Prep2Prep all-CCS first-team selection. This past season the 5-11 University of Pacific-bound Ennis averaged a double-double 15.7 points and 11.4 rebounds a game for a Wildcats team that made it to the CIF Northern Regional Division I playoffs before bowing out to Miramonte. For the season, Ennis had 15 double-doubles with one of her best games coming against D2 state champion Menlo and Prep2Prep CCS second-teamer Avery Lee in the CCS Open Division first round where she dominated and finished with 23 points and 12 rebounds in a 66-50 victory.
Hunter Hernandez, Archbishop Mitty
Position: Center
Year: Sophomore
The Prep2Prep Central Coast Section Sophomore of the Year who was the Prep2Prep Freshman of the Year two seasons ago, will be the top returning player in the CCS based on what most analysts have to say and deservedly so. This past season on a team where Prep2Prep CCS Player of the Year Haley Jones had the ball in her hands a whole lot of time Hernandez still managed to average 11.2 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.6 steals per game on a West Catholic Athletic League and Central Coast Section Open Division championship team that made it to the Northern Regional Open Division semifinals. Her biggest performance came in the CCS Open Division title-game 71-52 win over Pinewood when she delivered a double-double with 21 points, on 10-of-12 shooting from the floor, and 12 rebounds.
Haley Jones, Archbishop Mitty
Position: Forward
Year: Senior
Everything that could or can be said about Miss All-Everything and “cool as a cucumber” Jones, as Mitty Coach Sue Phillips said about her, is there is hardly any nationwide awards she did not win, and all of them are outlined in her Prep2Prep Central Coast Section Senior of the Year feature.
Hannah Jump. Pinewood
Position: Forward
Year: Senior
Pinewood is known as a three-point machine and over the years they have had some deadly shooters, but according to Panthers Coach Doc Scheppler the Prep2Prep Senior of the Year was the best of all of them. “Without question Hannah is the best and it’s not close,” Scheppler said. “In a two-minute drill she was 35-of-36 from three-point range.”
Ila Lane, Woodside Priory
Position: Center
Year: Senior
The 6-4 UC Santa Barbara-bound Lane had 19 double-doubles in 27 games played with a season-high 30 points with 13 rebounds in a CIF NorCal D3 first round win over Selma. Her best game may have come in a 60-57 loss to MLK Classic host Bishop O’Dowd when Lane went for 26 points and 16 rebounds. Besides the P2P CCS First Team honors, Lane was Bay Area News Group All Bay Area Second Team and San Francisco Chronicle All Metro Third Team selection.
SECOND TEAM ALL-CCS
Leilani Augmon, Silver Creek
Position: Forward
Year: Senior
With the Cal State Bakersfield-bound Augmon leading the way, the Raiders had a semifinal finish in the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs and made it to the Northern Regional Division IV semifinals as the top seed before bowing out to eventual state champion Oakland Tech. On the season, Augmon is believed to have averaged a double-double but her only reported stats were her team high 17.7 points per game for the Mt. Hamilton League champions.
Avery Lee, Menlo School
Position: Guard
Year: Sophomore
The Knights' point guard was the best player on a team that was put into the CCS Open Division and then placed in Division II for the CIF state playoffs as the top seed in the Northern Regionals where they beat Enterprise-Redding for the NorCal title and then Rolling Hills Prep-San Pedro for the Division II state championship. Lee led the team in scoring at 16.9 points per game (51 three-pointers), assists with 3.8 a game, steals with 3.2 a contest, and was third in rebounding at 4.9 a game. Her season high was 23 points and came in the opening round of the NorCals in a win over Bradshaw Christian, but Lee actually had her best game when it counted most when she almost had a triple-double in the state title game win after finishing with 15 points, eight rebounds and nine assists with two steals.
Annika Shah, Palo Alto
Position: Guard
Year: Sophomore
Despite being a sophomore, the 5-6 Shah not only is the team leader but she emerged as one of the best young talents in the CCS last season when she led to Vikings to the De Anza League title. Shah picked up again this year where she left off with the Vikings now 23-1 in league with her leading the way. The Bay Area News Group all-Bay Area third-team selection averaged 24.2 points, 3.3 assists, and 2.7 steals a game and made 82 three-pointers. Her top performance was 41 points in league against Saratoga.
Jordan Oliveras, Seaside
Position: Guard
Year: Senior
The PCAL-Gabilan MVP led the Spartans to the CCS Division IV title and the NorCal regional semifinals, averaging 20 points and 12 rebounds per game during the regular season, plus 23 rebounds and 14 assists per game during the playoffs. She is headed to Sacramento State on a basketball scholarship
Paige Uyehara, St. Francis
Position: Guard
Year: Senior
Uyehara was the top player on a Lancers team that despite finishing last in the WCAL were still chosen for the CCS Open Division, and then the Division I NorCal Regionals where she went for a team high 21 points in a 64-62 upset of host Cardinal Newman. In the next game she held her own against a talented Bear Creek-Stockton team and had a team high 15 points in a 64-59 road loss. For the season Uyehara led the team at 15.1 ppg and added 3.8 assists, 3.2 steals and 2.6 rebounds a game.
Nyah Willis, Valley Christian
Position: Wing
Year: Senior
Willis led the Warriors to a second place finish in the WCAL, finishing second on the team in scoring with 13.6 ppg.
The 5-11 Willis led the Warriors in rebounding at 7.6 per game and added 2.3 assists and 2.1 steals per contest. She had 15 points in a season-ending 59-56 loss to Bear Creek-Stockton in the D1 NorCals and looked good at the NorCal Sports TV All NorCal Games and finished with 10 points.
THIRD TEAM ALL-CCS
Ania McNicholas, Archbishop Mitty
Position: Guard
Year: Senior
The 5-6 combo guards and No. 3 scorer and intense defender on the nationally ranked Monarchs averaged 9.3 points, 2.9 rebounds 2.1 steals and 2.0 assists per game. Her high was 27 points against Aptos. Another solid effort of 18 points and four steals came in CCS Open Division playoff win over Eastside College Prep.
Talo Li-Uperesa, Sacred Heart Cathedral
Position: Forward
Year: Senior
The Fightin' Irish standout was the leading scorer and rebounder for a team that scheduled so tough that despite finishing in a three-way tie for third place in the West Catholic Athletic League and some excellent wins they did not make the playoffs. Li-Uperesa, who will be playing at Cal State-East Bay in the fall, was recently honored by the San Francisco Italian Athletic Club with the Kevin Restani Basketball Trophy for girls.
Annika Decker, Pinewood
Position: Guard
Year: Sophomore
The player Pinewood Coach Doc Scheppler raved about at the end of the season and felt came on the strongest of the Panthers talented group of underclass girls was this 5-3 combo guard. If it were only about scoring Decker wouldn’t be considered because 7.1 ppg doesn’t rate with bigger numbers, but she liked to pass and play defense and really didn’t look to score, however when CIF Open Division state champion Sierra Canyon put a blanket on Hannah Jump and Klara Astrom, Decker slashed her way to the basket for a season- and team-high 17 points. Decker also averaged 4.8 assists, 2.3 rebounds and 1.7 steals a game.
Kaitlyn Leung, Pinewood
Position: Guard
Year: Senior
Leung was the No. 3 scorer on the team in points and three-pointers at 9.6 points a game with 44 three-pointers, and she also snagged 3.1 rebounds a contest as well. The 5-3 combo guard finished strong starting with a team-high 23 points in the Panthers NorCal Open win over St. Mary’s-Stockton, 14 points in the NorCal Open semi win over Carondelet, 10 points in the Open Regional title game win over Salesian and 12 points and four rebounds in the CIF Open state championship loss to Sierra Canyon.
Natalia Ackerman, Aptos
Position: Forward
Year: Junior
The Cal Poly commit led the Mariners to SCCAL and CCS Division III crowns, averaging over 16 points and 10 rebounds per game. She had a season-high 40 points in a playoff win over Capuchino, and then added a 28-point, 22-rebound performance in the CCS championship game victory over South San Francisco.
HONORABLE MENTION:
ALISAL:
Briana Mejia
ALVAREZ:
Esmeralda Navarro
ANDREW HILL:
Kayla Martillano
ANZAR:
Rachel Cardini
APTOS:
Hannah Hocom
ARAGON:
Lydia Manu
ARCHBISHOP MITTY:
Ashley Hiraki
BRANHAM:
Katarina Knezevic
CAPUCHINO:
April Tuason
CARLMONT:
Ashley Trierweiler
CARMEL:
Soana Laulatu
CASTILLEJA:
Niki Chen
CEIBA PREP:
Fenesia Braga
CHRISTOPHER:
Katerina Javier
CRYSTAL SPRINGS UPLOAND:
Natalie Brewster
CUPERTINO:
Conny Yang
DEL MAR:
Angela Tulua
EASTSIDE COLLEGE PREP:
Zion Gabriel, Mina Tameilau
EL CAMINO:
Jasmine Pon
EVERGREEN VALLEY:
Christine Nguyen
GILROY:
Alyssa Harden
GONZALES:
Kayla Dixon
GREENFIELD:
Andrea Pantoja
GUNDERSON:
Imani Sires
HALF MOON BAY:
Mailie Bowers, Abby Kennedy
HARKER:
Akhila Ramgiri
HILLSDALE:
Bailey Fong
INDEPENDENCE:
Sophia Malla
JAMES LICK:
Dulce Jacobo
JEFFERSON:
Kristy Flores
KING CITY:
Nancy Andrade
LEIGH:
Nao Maeshiro
LELAND:
Karli Mukai
LINCOLN:
Asia Burns
LIVE OAK:
Adrianne Gomez
LOS ALTOS:
Jamie Baum
LOS GATOS:
Sabrina Belquist
LYNBROOK:
Sara Ho
MARINA:
Chaiann Fu-Gardner
MENLO:
Sharon Nejad
MENLO-ATHERTON:
Erica Fischer
MERCY-BURLINGAME:
Mia Calsada
MERCY-SAN FRANCISCO:
Amira Lama
MILLS:
– Kaela Stonebarger
MONTE VISTA CHRISTIAN:
Madison Hill
MONTEREY:
Katelyn Calvetti
MOUNTAIN VIEW:
Kyra Palmbush
MT. PLEASANT:
Deisy Leon
NORTH MONTEREY COUNTY:
Alyssa Torres
NORTH SALINAS:
Destiney Urzua
NOTRE DAME-BELMONT:
Emilia Dougherty
NOTRE DAME-SALINAS:
Kelly Kinion
NOTRE DAME-SAN JOSE:
Chiara Cantos
OAK GROVE:
Stefani Madrigal
OAKWOOD:
Lydia Sattler
OCEANA:
Valeria Martinez
OVERFELT:
Michelle Bulatao
PACIFIC COLLEGIATE:
Anika Patel
PACIFIC GROVE:
Lyndsey Llantero
PACIFIC POINT:
Olivia Prettyman
PAJARO VALLEY:
Jayleen Solorzano
PALO ALTO:
Ellie Jeffries
PIEDMONT HILLS:
Katie Yamashita
PINEWOOD:
Trinity Copeland, Courtni Thompson
PIONEER:
Jenny Mizota
PRESENTATION:
Kelly Heimburger
PROSPECT:
Maya Palumbo
SACRED HEART CATHEDRAL:
Da’Myiah Lewis
SACRED HEART PREP:
Charlotte Levison
SALINAS:
Makenzi LaPorte
SAN BENITO:
Alyssa Ito
SAN JOSE:
Helena Sategna
SAN LORENZO VALLEY:
Katelyn Shelton
SAN MATEO:
Trinity O’Mahoney
SANTA CATALINA:
Kia Shoemaker
SANTA CRUZ:
Bella Stevens
SANTA TERESA:
Alysa Lopez
SARATOGA:
Anika Prasad
SCOTTS VALLEY:
Ella Giguiere
SEASIDE:
Jordan Olivares
SEQUOIA:
Soana Afu
SILVER CREEK:
Xiana Torres
SOBRATO:
Kiana Maldia
SOLEDAD:
Theresa Chavez
SOQUEL:
Mackenzi Duran
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO:
Becca Tasi, Alex Salise
ST. FRANCIS:
Mia Grizelj
ST. FRANCIS SCP:
Janessa Yniguez
ST. IGNATIUS:
Angie McAdams
STEVENSON:
Rhea Cosand
TERRA NOVA:
Kapua Wong-Hin
THE KING'S ACADEMY:
Kristyn Barton
VALLEY CHRISTIAN:
Jadyn Patterson
WATSONVILLE:
Ruby Galvan
WESTMONT:
Reiko Scilingo
WESTMOOR:
Teuila Tuiasosopo
WILCOX:
Anna Neely
WILLOW GLEN:
Morgan Riley
WOODSIDE:
Natalya Hotovec
WOODSIDE PRIORY:
Aniyah Augmon
YERBA BUENA:
Aubree Lewis
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