Merritt is going regional

Kevin McCarthy
 

Merritt College finished 7-9 in Bay Valley Conference play last season and 11-17 overall, with a pair of freshmen -- one a local, the other regional -- in the lead. Reinforcements have now been secured and it’s another batch of northern California high schoolers intent on establishing the Oakland Hills school as a factor in league and beyond.

On the court in 2009-2010, it was the youthful tandem of Roman Robinson and Saajid Polite who led the way and each returns for the 2010-2011 season.

6-foot-3 Robinson, fresh out of Rodriguez High in Fairfield as the Solano County League most valuable player, scored 14.1 points, seventh in the Bay Valley action, and grabbed 5.1 rebounds per game. His initial production earned him a spot on the all-conference team.

Grant (Sacramento) High graduate 6-foot-3 Polite put up 13.3 points and 3.1 boards a contest and was a Bay Valley All Conference honorable mention.

So who is leading the Merritt program?

It’s Keenan McMiller, a San Francisco State University graduate in psychology who will have an M.A. in kinesiology from St. Mary’s come the summer of 2011. His Thunderbird squad performed most admirably in the classroom last season, with three sophomores moving on to four-year schools.

Venezuelan Niko Hidalgo earned two A.A. degrees and turned down various D-2 offers to attend Cal where he and his 3.8 grade point average will walk-on to the basketball team. Shooting guard Andre Martin earned his degree and is now on scholarship at Colorado State-Pueblo. Point Michael McElroy, a transfer from Columbia College, arrived with just nine academic units in tow. He is now at Holy Names College on academic and scholarship funding after school work last summer, combined with 18 units in the fall and 20 in the spring, resulted in an A.A. degree.

During and after the season, McMiller worked the local and regional high school ranks hard and landed more than a handful of recognizable incoming frosh:

• Isaiah Bohmann, 6-foot-8, Sutter High - led the state in rebounding, averaged a double-double of 18 points and boards a game, also played prep football
• Nicolas Capiti, 6-foot-1, Bishop O’Dowd High - finally healthy, Capiti will play the point for the Thunderbirds
• Elliott Herald, 6-foot-3, Center High - averaged 15 points a game last season
• Tyler Idowu, 6-foot-4, Rodriguez High - can run and jump with the very best, averaged seven boards and two blocked shots a contest
• Kareem Ransom, 6-foot-3, Inderkum High - an excellent athlete and scorer who totaled just under 15 points and nabbed five rebounds a game last season
• Khalil Ray, 6-foot-2, Sacramento High - a hard-working glue guy who McMiller believes will improve by leaps and bounds
• Gurprett Sandher, 6-foot-3, San Lorenzo High - scored 18 points per game last season and displays tremendous shooting ability, a diamond in the rough per McMiller

Five of McMiller’s newbies, two of them points, will grayshirt:

• Contrail Dixon, 5-foot-9, Benicia High - a high scoring lefty
• Marcos Castrillo, 6-foot-5, Pinole Valley High
• Austin Kavasnicka, 6-foot-9, 235, Pinole Valley High
• Eric King, 6-foot-0, Deer Valley High - averaged double figures as a Wolverine senior
• Jisuan Randle, 6-foot-2, Newark Memorial High - a scrapper who won’t back down to anyone and is just 17

"This group is already tight knit, with a great attitude and good work ethic," according to McMiller. "Some of the mothers have already come over and cooked dinners."

He is taking his team to the Nor Cal Community College Summer Showcase and its counterpart in southern California this summer "so that the kids will understand what is necessary to compete and win."

McMiller is hoping his crew follows this advice offered by the late Pearl Buck: "The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible -- and achieve it, generation after generation."