Davis Hoops Making Impact
By Bruce Gallaudet
The Davis Enterprise
March 01, 2009
Davis is a soccer town.
Hold on to your penalty kicks, Bunkie. Davis is a bicycle town.
Not so fast, Pedal Breath. Davis is becoming a basketball town. Yes. Basketball.
You're right. To see soccer's impact, all one has to do is look around. This field and that field frequently feature games. And practices are everywhere. Outside, everywhere.
And bicycles- Just driving to the store or visiting UC Davis, we can see the impact. Again, outside.
But during the past nine years, quietly - indoors - a basketball revolution brews. And the leader of that revolution has been the 200-player Davis Hoops program.
Sure the high school soccer teams regularly challenge for state and national honors and Davis Youth Soccer League squads are among the best in the United States.
And, yes, the Amgen Tour of California just staged here last month as Davis Bike Club continues to turn out world-class riders.
However, open those gym doors sometime. Basketball is everywhere now, too.
The junior highs have more hardcourt players than their coaches can handle. Adult recreation leagues flourish at night and the Parks and Community Services kids' program consumes both Davis High gyms on Saturday mornings.
DHS' Lady Blue Devils have made five straight playoff appearances and the boys varsity squad was thoroughly entertaining this past season - and it expects to have a full complement of Hoops graduates on its roster next year.
See? Basketball. Who knew?
Bob Silva knew. About a decade ago, the Davis surgeon and basketball mentor saw a hole in the local sports mosaic. 'I felt, in order for our kids to compete at a higher level, they needed a more competitive environment,' Silva remembers. 'Working on the principal that it would take years of hard of work to become an overnight success, I decided to stress fundamental skill development.'
That first team, which featured sixth-graders including Silva's son, got hammered in its inaugural tournaments. 'Our kids hadn't seen that kind of competitive style before,' Silva explains as he watches coach Bruce Berry's under-13 team go through its paces on Friday night. 'Now... These guys have played three, four years against the best. They are tournament tough.'
Silva has seen Hoops go from humble beginnings - a team of boys eager to learn basketball the right way - to a 16-team program that features two squads at almost every grade level through high school (think metro and comp teams as in DYSL soccer).
The 200 boys and girls who play in the Hoops program are from West Sacramento, Dixon, Winters, Woodland as well as Davis. 'My feeling ... is that by involving these other communities, we will be able to have more consistently competitive teams,' Silva believes.
Davis High boys basketball coach Dan Gonzalez sings the praises of the Hoops program and says the results of Silva and company's hard work is starting to pay dividends. 'We put in a whole new (offensive) system, the terminology is the same from here down through (fifth-grade) teams and Bob and George (Sousa) are helping here with junior varsity and varsity as coaches,' Gonzalez says.
Players like sophomore guard Graham McDaniel, who says Hoops made him ready for top-level basketball, are classic examples of what the program can mean to the Blue Devils. McDaniel has been 'Hooping it up' since fourth grade and, this past DHS season, started all but five games at point guard for the local high school. McDaniel says knowing what was expected of him - because he was surrounded by a consistent progression of plays, teaching and encouragement - made him 'ready to go' as a 10th-grader.
Also, there are a handful of junior varsity Hoops graduates ready to join the Mother Ship next year, too. And it's no small wonder... Davis Hoops is steeped in quality administrators and coaches.
Sousa, for example, is the former head coach at basketball power Archbishop Mitty in the Bay Area. Sousa, now a Davis High varsity and JV assistant, also mentors the Hoops coaches. He is the thread through the beads that are the different levels of the new Davis basketball. 'We meet at the beginning of each season to review the vision, goals and expectations of coaches,' Sousa explains. 'I then am available to all coaches throughout the season ... (available) to discuss any issues.' From communcation with parents to fundamental instruction to game management or tryouts, Sousa lends a hand.
You don't think basketball is boxing out other sports, jockeying for its position as one of the community's major sports? There are more than 25 youth teams in the Parks and Community Services recreation leagues. Adult basketball takes up the DHS gym a couple nights a week and, although hit-and-miss, junior high teams have seen as many as 35 players turn out in recent years.
Hoops camps and clinics - open to any kids in the region - have been star-studded. National Basketball Association players Mike Bibby and Peja Stojokovich have joined former NBAers Damond Edwards and Monty Buckley as clinic presenters. Even current Davis schools chief James Hammond (an accomplished collegiate player) has lent a hand with Hoops events. Varsity high school coaches Gonzalez and Jeff Christian have been involved, too.
While almost half the Hoops coaches hail from Dixon, the coaching staffs provide opportunities for local prep players to get involved.
Karen Foster, involved as a floating coach in the Davis High girls program, handles Hoops eighth-grade teams with help from daughter Megan and Bea Woods, both Lady Blue Devils. Nikol Allison, an all-league center for DHS, helps dad Craig with his fifth- and sixth-graders. The community ties run deep, the influence becoming stronger and the numbers growing. '(Hoops) is extremely organized,' Karen Foster says. 'There are tryouts at all age groups ... and we do have to make some cuts, but (we) try to make room to work with all the athletes. 'There are scholarships available for players in financial difficulty and Carol (Sorensen) does an excellent job with the (administrative) part of the program.'
Ah, Carol Sorenson...
'Carol has done a phenomenal job of keeping DHBC running smoothly,' Silva smiles. 'In the early years, I handled all the administrative work, so I was ecstatic to have Carol join us.' From scheduling gym time, to helping make arrangements for uniforms, tournament travel and handing out the grants, Sorensen is the program's first stop.
Two of Sorensen's kids, Jeff and Brian, began playing in Hoops during the 2001 season and all four of her children have been involved over the years. She gets paid for [8] hours a week, but with growing participation, everybody she works with says her time involved must be more like 40-50 hours weekly.
Then there's Bruce Berry...
Three decades ago, Berry came to Davis to attend the university. Former Aggie coach Bob Hamilton saw Berry play at Crestmoor High in the Bay Area - as a point guard. But in the next year, the Hoops coach grew five inches and became a frontline player at San Mateo College. When he finally arrived at UCD, Hamilton remembered Berry but had no room at the inn - Brrry was the final cut on the 1980 Aggie team.
'I went on to play in city leagues in Davis, Woodland and Sacramento and played in tournaments all over the place ... I've even played with players that I coached in the youth league 20 years ago,' Berry explains.
In his second season coaching Hoops (whose teams are known as the Wildcats), Berry believes 'the most rewarding thing for the kids that comes with playing for Davis Hoops is the respect they earn from their peers.'
'We had 35 kids try out for the U-13 team; 10 more than last year.'
So, still think Davis is just bikes and soccer balls? Fortunately, there's room for everybody.
Notes: Take some time to visit http://davishoops.com for additional information. ...According to Sousa, as many as 10 former Hoops graduates could appear on the DHS boys roster next season. ...As part of involvement in the Hoops program, community service is required of all participants - players and coaches.
