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Balanced Liberty basketball team ready for BVAL play

by Michael Dixon Correspondent

The Liberty High School boys basketball team is 15 games into its 20-game season and sports an 11-4 record. While Bay Valley Athletic League play has yet to begin, the Lions preseason mark is by far the best in the league, with 6-5 Heritage and 8-8 Freedom being the next two best teams in non-league play. And the record alone doesn’t necessarily tell the story about how good Liberty has been. The quality of opponents has also been strong.

“If you look at MaxPreps and start doing comparisons, we have the highest strength of schedule in the league,” coach Jon Heinz said. We’ve had some really good wins and a couple really disappointing losses. We don’t blow anyone away with our athleticism. But we feel confident that we have five to six players on the team who are capable of putting up 15 points in any given game. That depth has been tested a lot throughout the season.”

On Dec. 30, Liberty defeated Valley Christian 83-81, in double overtime, despite missing three players. One of the stars of that game was sophomore Gavin Cook-Whisenton, who normally plays on the junior varsity team but was called up. The bump in competition did little to faze Cook-Whisenton, who scored 17 points and grabbed 15 rebounds in Liberty’s win.

The Lions’ most recent game was against Davis on Saturday, Jan. 15 in the Simply Basketball Showcase at Sacramento’s Sheldon High School. Heinz acknowledged that he was “really worried about Davis” going into the game. Adding to those concerns, the Lions were down four players for that game, dressing only 10. Despite that, Liberty came away with a 64-51 victory.

“We really controlled that game from start to finish,” Heinz said. “We haven’t had our full team together in three weeks because of injuries and COVID. But we keep fighting through it.”

While many of the injuries have been temporary, one key loss has been junior forward Ethan Wassem, who’s sidelined for the remainder of the season.

Depth is certainly the key for the Lions. Despite that, there have been some key leaders on the team through the year. Guard Julian Costa was all-league as a sophomore and is on his way to repeating the honor as a junior. At 6-foot-4, fellow junior Miles Lawrence gives Liberty some toughness in the paint.

The victory against Davis was the team’s first game in 10 days. It’s also currently scheduled to be the team’s last game until Wednesday, Jan. 26. All but one game of a six-game stretch on Liberty’s original schedule was canceled. And

see Basketball page 12

Photo by Angelo Garcia Jr. Liberty’s Tano Montez (number 12) puts up a shot during the Lions’ win over Kimball High earlier this season. The Lions are off to a league-best 11-4 start.

Flag football is coming to East County

by Jesus Cano Correspondent

Next Level Sports, a Bay Area-based sports league, will be making its debut at Heritage High School in Brentwood with a nine-week flag football program. It was slated to occur during the 2020-’21 season but was sidelined due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The program is open for all children in grade levels kindergarten through sixth grade and runs every Sunday from January 16 to March 13, rain or shine, and is designed to have a two-hour model where participants practice for the first hour and play a game the following hour.

The schedule is as follows:

• 6th/7th Grade - 9 a.m. practice/10 a.m. game • 5th Grade - 9 a.m. practice/10 a.m. game • 4th Grade - 10 a.m. practice/11 a.m. game • 3rd Grade - 10 a.m. practice/11 a.m. game • 2nd Grade - 11 a.m. practice/noon game • Kindergarten/1st Grade - noon practice/1 p.m. game

Current Heritage assistant coach Kevin Hartwig – who served as Freedom’s head football coach for 16 seasons – will be the site director. While there is no tackling in flag football, Hartwig said that a program like this will help develop talent

“I really liked the model where it brings more kids involved in football for the right reasons,” Hartwig said.

Hartwig said the landscape of football has changed, with the days of kids playing contact football at 7, 8 or 9 years old faded away.

“I think that’s what has killed our sport,” Hartwig said. “There’s just not enough information backing flag football. A 5-year old playing flag football, is a lot different than a 5-year-old playing tackle football.”

A player doesn’t need to play football their entire life to be successful, according to Hartwig.

“It’s about development and just getting more kids to like football,’’ Hartwig said.

Next Level has had strong local interest with 260 participants enrolled, surpassing Hartwig’s goal of 220.

Next Level also has a unique coaching model. Local high school football players will be in charge of coaching and officiating games. Heritage running back and Fresno State commit Devon Rivers will be coaching the Fresno Bulldogs. “I think it’s important so kids understand and learn the rules of the games fast to keep kids safe and keep less kids from getting injured,” Rivers said. The cost is $275, which includes a participant’s custom jersey, shorts, use of flags, and other equipment/offerings.

For more information, visit https://www.nextlevelsports.com/.

Oakley native competes in Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship

Kyle Greeson, an Oakley native, participated in the 2022 Monster Energy AMA Supercross Championship at Oakland’s Ring Central Coliseum last weekend.

Greeson qualified in 40th position on his KTM 350, in the premier 450SX class. He went on to finish 20th in the seven-lap race to determine gate picks for the main event. And in the last- chance qualifier, he finished in 13th place, which put him out of position for the 22-man main event. Only the top four in the last- chance qualifier advanced.

Greeson, 21, has been racing since his early days on a mini bike at local tracks in the region.

Greeson’s goal at the Oakland event was to have fun racing and gain valuable experience, especially to experience the speed of the 450SX class, he said. He plans to race more West Coast rounds to gain more experience.

The top three finishers in the 450SX Class in Oakland were Jason Anderson, Aaron Plessinger and Justin Barcia.

Photo by Mike Subocz Oakley native Kyle Greeson soars through the air during a supercross competition last weekend.

Basketball from page 11 while Heinz is trying to find at least one fill-in game, the fact that most schools are into their league schedules now does not make that any easier.

“Playing one game in three weeks, you just don’t know what you’re going to get out of your team,” Heinz said. Heinz has always said that a 10-game regular season was a better way to crown a league champion than a single-elimination tournament. But this year, with a 10-game season not possible, he feels the tournament is equitable.

“This year with COVID, kids in and out of the lineup,” he said. “If you’re healthy for that one week, you have a chance.”

From what he’s seen in the nonleague season against quality opponents, Heinz said he knows that his team has a real chance at not only winning a league championship but potentially going on a deep postseason run.

“I’m pretty lucky to coach a great group of boys -- they’re really coachable and they listen,” Heinz said. “They’re really great kids. And really young. In a home stretch in a big game, I had two sophomores, two juniors and one senior. In my top seven, there’s only two seniors. They’re balanced and if they play hard defense, good things will happen.”

The Liberty High Lions boys basketball team was originally scheduled to open BVAL play on Tuesday, Jan 11 and the league season was going to be a customary 10-game schedule where each team would play all league opponents twice – once at home, once on the road. But due to a spike in COVID-19 numbers, league play will now be a single round-robin, beginning on Wednesday, Jan. 26.

Liberty will open the BVAL schedule on Jan. 26 at home against Deer Valley. The Lions will be on the road against Pittsburg on Friday, Jan. 28, home against Freedom on Wednesday, Feb. 2, at Antioch on Friday, Feb. 4 and will host Heritage in the regular season finale on Monday, Feb. 7. All of Liberty’s games -- home and road -- are scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

Following that, a league tournament will commence, with the top- two seeds receiving a first round bye, the No. 3 and No. 6 seeds playing in one first round game and the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds squaring off in the other.

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