Players & coaches from Sierra Canyon get bunched together for a photo that concluded their press conference after winning 2022 CIF Open Division title. Photo: Mark Tennis.
It’s an obvious situation to list our annual State Team of the Year in girls hoops as the same as the CIF Open Division state champion. After COVID wiped out the 2020 and 2021 championships, however, this year’s honoree, Sierra Canyon, also represents a return to normalcy. The Trailblazers also just happen to be same team that won it 2019.
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(Associate editor Harold Abend contributed to this article)
With the great Juju Watkins making play after play and the rest of her Sierra Canyon teammates making an insane number of their shots, the team’s dominating 85-61 win last Saturday over Archbishop Mitty of San Jose in the CIF Open Division state championship has been followed up today with the official rubber-stamp announcement of the Trailblazers as the Cal-Hi Sports State Team of the Year.
The last time that the State Team of the Year was a rubber-stamp of the Open Division state final was in 2019 due to the pandemic wiping out the 2020 and 2021 CIF state finals. That was Sierra Canyon as well for 2019, but it was taken the last two years by the two CIF SoCal open champs from La Jolla Country Day and Corona Centennial. The Open Division also has only been around since 2013 so before that it was very possible that the State Team of the Year could come from below the CIF Division I champion.
“It’s an honor to see Sierra Canyon’s name listed twice in the last four years,” head coach Alicia Komaki said on Sunday night in a text. “This team battled through the most challenging gauntlet of talented, nationally ranked opponents to win this championship. I can’t think of a tougher journey in the last decade. We are honored to recognized for our special season and it’s the perfect culmination for us.”
Since 2010, the only other school to be State Team of the Year more than once in girls hoops is Mater Dei of Santa Ana when the Monarchs topped the charts from 2010 to 2012. Komaki was an assistant coach there at the time before moving to the Sierra Canyon top spot 10 years ago. She has frequently credited her years working with still current MD head coach Kevin Kiernan for helping her become so successful with the Trailblazers. Kiernan is the winningest girls coach in state history.
That challenging gauntlet that Komaki referred to primarily is the two teams that the Trailblazers had to beat in avenging loss scenarios to reach the CIF Open finals — first La Jolla Country Day (25-3*) and then Etiwanda (29-1). And like Sierra Canyon, both of those teams have their main star players returning in 2022-23. If one of those teams works harder than the others this off-season and gets just a tiny bit better, then that’s the team that likely will be the one added to this all-time state list one year from now.
Cal-Hi Sports Girls Basketball
State Teams of the Year All-Time List
Jayda Curry stands with fellow 2021 Centennial grad Trinity San Antonio after a game during 2019-20 season. Photo: Harold Abend / Cal-Hi Sports.
2022 – Chatsworth Sierra Canyon (30-2)
2021 – Corona Centennial (25-1)
2020 – La Jolla Country Day (32-1)
2019 – Chatsworth Sierra Canyon (33-1)
2018 – Los Angeles Windward (27-3)
2017 – Fresno Clovis West (34-2)
2016 – West Hills Chaminade (31-4)
2015 – Stockton St. Mary’s (34-1)
2014 – Long Beach Poly (27-3)
2013 – Oakland Bishop O’Dowd (30-3)
2012 – Santa Ana Mater Dei (34-3)
2011 – Santa Ana Mater Dei (34-1)
2010 – Santa Ana Mater Dei (32-1)
2009 – Brea Olinda Brea (33-2)
2008 – S.F. Sacred Heart Cathedral (33-0)
2007 – Long Beach Poly (36-1)
2006 – Fullerton Troy (33-1)
2005 – Piedmont (32-2)
2004 – Piedmont (33-2)
2003 – Lynwood (32-1)
2002 – Lynwood (32-0)
2001 – Harbor City Narbonne (28-3)
2000 – Harbor City Narbonne (34-0)
1999 – San Jose Archbishop Mitty (31-0)
1998 – Harbor City Narbonne (32-1)*
1997 – Berkeley (29-3)
1996 – Irvine Woodbridge (32-2)
1995 – Irvine Woodbridge (33-1)
1994 – Brea Olinda Brea (33-0)
1993 – Lynwood (31-0)
1992 – RH Estates Peninsula (33-0)
1991 – Berkeley (30-2)
1990 – Inglewood Morningside (32-3)
1989 – Inglewood Morningside (33-1)
1988 – Fremont Oakland (28-0)**
1987 – San Diego Point Loma (34-0)
1986 – San Diego Point Loma (31-1)
1985 – Compton (26-0)
1984 – Ventura Buena (31-0)
1983 – Ventura Buena (28-4)
1982 – Riverside Poly (34-0)
1981 – Riverside Poly (29-0)
1980 – Berkeley (29-0)
1979 – Woodland Hills El Camino Real (19-0)
1978 – Huntington Beach (25-2)
1977 – Los Angeles (16-0)
1976 – Ventura (23-0)
1975 – Chula Vista Hilltop (18-0)
1974 – Berkeley (19-1)
1973 – Fresno San Joaquin Memorial (12-0)
1972 – Ventura Buena (8-0)
*Forfeit losses not included. CIF Division I state title vacated due to residency issues.
**Eleven wins forfeited due to use of ineligible player.
Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports
