Two of the top five prep basketball teams in USA Today's "Super 25" rankings last season will headline the next Iolani Prep Basketball Classic (Dec. 17-22). Two top five teams
By Pat Bigold
enter Iolani Classic
Star-BulletinClassic officials announced that No. 3 St. John's at Prospect Hall (25-1) of Frederickton, Md. and No. 5 Miami Senior (36-1) will be in the 16-team field.
Doug Huff's National Prep Poll also had St. John's, which beat powerhouse teams in eight different states, third. Huff ranked Miami Senior sixth.
St. John's is the defending Iolani Classic champion.
The classic, which has showcased 14 future NBA players since it began in 1983, also will include two teams that finished ranked in the top 10 in USA Today's West region list.
St. Joseph Notre Dame of Alameda, Calif. (31-4), which was nationally ranked up until the last week of the season, finished seventh in the West while Provo High of Utah (22-2) finished ninth.
Provo was second in Huff's Midland Region poll.
St. John's prep superstar Jason Capel, who averaged 21.2 points, 8.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists, last year, returns as a senior.
Miami Senior, which won its second consecutive Class 6A Florida state title (seventh in 11 years), features Brindley Wright (19.0 points and 7.2 rebounds) and Udonis Haslem (10.6 points and 7.5 rebounds).
Also in the Iolani field are Fairfax, Canyon and St. Bernard of California, Lathrop of Alaska, Okinawa Select and the following local teams: two-time defending state champion Moanalua, state runner-up Iolani, Kamehameha, St. Louis, Mililani, Kaiser, and Leilehua.
THREE ILH JV SQUADS CUT: Three Interscholastic League of Honolulu football programs have dropped junior varsity teams this season.
Pac-Five and Damien will do without JVs for the first time in the history of their programs, and Iolani finds itself without sufficient numbers for a JV team for the second time in three seasons.
The St. Louis, Punahou and Kamehameha programs remain.
"We felt it just wasn't safe to field a team under the circumstances," said ILH football coordinator and Pac-Five head coach Don Botelho. He said he had about 20 players but when practice and game injuries and illness are figured into the equation, the numbers available to play would drop dangerously.
"I think even 25 is not enough," Botelho said. "You need about 30 to be safe."
The award, which was made to 133 high school and college volleyball teams across the country, used a 3.3 team cumulative grade point average as its standard. Iolani's team GPA was 3.71.
The Iolani head coach is former University of Hawaii Wahine player Ann Kang.