Harvard-Westlake players & coaches are shown at center court at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento after their win in CIF Open Division state final. Photo: Samuel Stringer / Cal-Hi Sports.
Before Sierra Canyon came along in 2018, the only team in state history from the San Fernando Valley region of Southern California to finish No. 1 in the state in boys basketball was the team in 1997 from Harvard-Westlake of Studio City. After Harvard-Westlake won the CIF Open Division state title last Saturday, the Wolverines now officially join their legendary 1997 squad on the all-time state list.
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(Managing editor Ronnie Flores contributed to this article)
The players surrounding Harvard-Westlake head coach Dave Rebibo after they had defeated St. Joseph of Santa Maria last Saturday at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento for the CIF Open Division state title got a little amped up when their coach didn’t immediately declare them the best team he’s ever coached.
“Okay, yes, they are the best team I’ve coached,” said Rebibo, who had a previous CIF state title team in D4 in 2016. “They are just so connected to each other. Win or lose after this game they wanted to travel back together just to be with each other one last time.”
It was a different story, though, when it was asked about the team being on the same all-time list of teams that have been No. 1 in the state.
“We’re fine to say we’re the second best ever (from Harvard-Westlake),” the coach added. “These guys up here won’t get it, but some of the people in the back get it (why that’s the case).”
There were also a few others that were in the press conference (especially those of us from Cal-Hi Sports) who saw Harvard-Westlake’s only other State Team of the Year, which came after the 1997 CIF state championships. There were no Open Divisions or competitive equity seedings then, but the Wolverines cruised to the D3 state title, lost just one game all season (which was in the finals of a major tourney in Las Vegas to a team from North Carolina that was led by future Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady) and were ranked No. 11 the last time we did our all-time rankings of the greatest teams in state history.
When Jaron and Jason Collins played at Harvard-Westlake of North Hollywood, their parents were always close by. Photo: Willie Eashman / Cal-Hi Sports.
If the current players at the school did some reading about 1997, it’s also doubtful they’d argue too much about that particular team still being considered the greatest in Harvard-Westlake history. It’s a group that was led by two future NBA players — 6-foot-10 twins Jason and Jarron Collins — plus other very effective role players and additional size. And in the semifinals of that tournament in Las Vegas before H-W took on Tracy McGrady’s team, head coach Greg Hilliard’s team defeated perennial power Mater Dei of Santa Ana by a whopping 63-38. The Wolverines also had wins over CIF D1 state champ Crenshaw of Los Angeles, D2 state champ Dominguez of Compton (which was No. 1 in the nation to start the season) and D4 state champ Crossroads of Santa Monica (led by future NBA star Baron Davis).
Small forward Rico Cabrera Jr., shooting guard Ryan Smiley, and point guard Victor Munoz rounded out the starting lineup for that 1997 team. Despite all of its accomplishments, however, this year’s starters with junior Trent Perry at the point, with senior Jacob Huggins providing most of the inside power and then senior Brady Dunlap, senior Robert Hinton and sophomore Nikolas Khamenia able to do pretty much everything within the team’s system would be hard to top as a unit that as the coach said was completely connected to each other. Junior Christian Horry also scored in the state final.
Just for this year’s team to have been able to knock off the school that had been State Team of the Year for 2021 and 2022, Centennial of Corona, also is a feat hard to top despite historical comparisons. Centennial didn’t win a CIF state title in 2021 (the COVID season in which there were no CIF state playoffs) but was No. 1 in the final rankings. Sierra Canyon also wasn’t able to win a CIF state title in 2020 since the pandemic hit just a few days before those finals. The Trailblazers did win CIF Open titles in both 2018 and 2019 and were named State Team of the Year after winning the 2020 CIF SoCal Open Division regional title. And other than those two schools, there are no others on the all-time list of state No. 1 teams from the San Fernando Valley.
Cal-Hi Sports Boys Basketball
State Teams of the Year All-Time List
2023 – Studio City Harvard-Westlake (33-2)
2022 – Corona Centennial (33-1)
2021 – Corona Centennial (21-2)
2020 – Chatsworth Sierra Canyon (30-4)
2019 – Chatsworth Sierra Canyon (32-3)
2018 – Chatsworth Sierra Canyon (27-4)
2017 – Torrance Bishop Montgomery (31-2)
2016 – Chino Hills (35-0)
2015 – Oakland Bishop O’Dowd (28-4)
2014 – Santa Ana Mater Dei (35-0)
2013 – Santa Ana Mater Dei (34-2)
2012 – Santa Ana Mater Dei (34-2)
2011 – Santa Ana Mater Dei (32-3)
2010 – Los Angeles Westchester (32-3)
2009 – Los Angeles Westchester (35-2)
2008 – Oakland McClymonds (32-0)
2007 – Lakewood Artesia (33-2)
2006 – Lakewood Artesia (32-1)
2005 – Los Angeles Westchester (25-3)
2004 – Los Angeles Westchester (23-2)
2003 – Santa Ana Mater Dei (34-2)
2002 – Los Angeles Westchester (32-2)
2001 – Santa Ana Mater Dei (33-2)
2000 – Compton Dominguez (35-2)
1999 – Compton Dominguez (32-3)
1998 – Los Angeles Westchester (29-3)
1997 – Studio City Harvard-Westlake (35-1)
1996 – Compton Dominguez (34-2)
1995 – Santa Ana Mater Dei (36-1)
1994 – Los Angeles Crenshaw (29-2)
1993 – Los Angeles Crenshaw (26-2)
1992 – Alameda St. Joseph (32-3)
1991 – Alameda St. Joseph (31-3)
1990 – Santa Ana Mater Dei (34-1)
1989 – Los Angeles Crenshaw (25-2)
1988 – Los Angeles Manual Arts (27-3)
1987 – Santa Ana Mater Dei (31-1)
1986 – Los Angeles Crenshaw (25-2)
1985 – Los Angeles Crenshaw (24-0)
1984 – Long Beach Poly (31-2)
1983 – Los Angeles Crenshaw (27-2)
1982 – Carson (26-2)
1981 – Long Beach Poly (26-2)
1980 – Inglewood (29-0)
1979 – Los Angeles Verbum Dei (28-1)
1978 – Pasadena (26-2)
1977 – Oakland Fremont (25-1)
1976 – Long Beach Poly (30-1)
1975 – Elk Grove (27-5)
1974 – Los Angeles Verbum Dei (30-2)
1973 – Los Angeles Verbum Dei (29-2)
1972 – Los Angeles Verbum Dei (30-1)
1971 – Los Angeles Verbum Dei (29-2)
1970 – Berkeley (32-0)
1969 – Compton (30-0)
1968 – Compton (32-0)
1967 – Los Angeles Fremont (16-2)
1966 – Los Angeles Jordan (18-0)
1965 – Long Beach Poly (29-3)
1964 – Long Beach Poly (32-1)
1963 – Oakland McClymonds (19-3)
1962 – Oakland McClymonds (23-0)
1961 – Compton (28-3)
1960 – Oakland McClymonds (22-0)
1959 – Oakland McClymonds (22-0)
1958 – Oakland McClymonds (21-0)
1957 – San Francisco Poly (28-1)
1956 – El Cerrito (31-1)
1955 – Alhambra (27-2)
1954 – San Francisco St. Ignatius (26-2)
1953 – Los Angeles Loyola (34-2)
1952 – Compton (32-0)
1951 – Los Angeles Jefferson (27-0)
1950 – Chico (15-3)
1949 – Los Angeles Washington (21-0)
1948 – San Francisco Lincoln (29-2)
1947 – Los Angeles Mt. Carmel (34-2)
1946 – Stockton (20-2)
1945 – San Diego Hoover (16-1)
1944 – Alameda (15-1)
1943 – San Francisco St. Ignatius (14-0)
1942 – Palo Alto (18-0)
1941 – Glendale Hoover (21-1)
1940 – Long Beach Poly (22-2)
1939 – San Francisco Lowell (17-3)
1938 – Whittier (24-3)
1937 – San Francisco Lowell (17-3)
1936 – San Diego (14-1)
1935 – Santa Barbara (14-1)
1934 – Santa Barbara (16-1)
1933 – Stockton (16-2)
1932 – San Francisco Lowell (18-3)
1931 – Whittier (25-1)
1930 – Palo Alto (13-0)
Note: List continues back to 1903 in Cal-Hi Sports Record Book & Almanac. All selections prior to 1975 made retroactively based on research by our founder, the late Nelson Tennis.
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
