Two of this week’s honorees are Gloria Barrera of Buena Park (left) and Jorell Clark of Palo Alto. Photos: Buena Park girls basketball & X.com.
A player with a school record 54 points in one game, a player who reminds us of an all-time great baseball player, another who is averaging more than 29 points per game and another from a school that once went 31-0 are all among this week’s honorees. They come from stops we’ll make in Laguna Hills and Buena Park for Southern California plus Palo Alto and Willows for Northern California. Note: Please donate to a charity today that is helping fire victims in Pacific Palisades, Altadena and other places in Los Angeles County.
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Notes: For these honors, we also consider CIF Central Section players for Northern California. To nominate anyone, email markjtennis@gmail.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Gloria Barrera (Buena Park) Sr.
We head to northern Orange County for this week’s stop to find our SoCal girls’ honoree. It’s at a school in a town known for Knott’s Berry Farm and other tourist attractions along Beach Boulevard. Barrera has been an attractive option for the Buena Park High girls team as a big-time scorer. The former standout at St. Paul of Santa Fe Springs, who transferred in to Buena Park before the start of the 2023-24 season, is averaging more than 29 points per game so far this season.
In her games last week, Gloria was near her averages in a 89-32 win vs Calvary Chapel of Downey and in a 58-50 victory vs Santiago of Corona. She had 30 points vs Calvary Chapel for the Coyotes and then 27 points with six rebounds and four assists vs the Sharks.
A former teammate of Barrera’s at Buena Park, Bella Harmon, who now plays at St. Joseph of Lakewood, was one of our previous SoCal players of the week this season. Gloria also averaged 25 ppg in the CIFSS D2AA playoffs last season and she recently posted 39 points in a victory vs Canyon of Anaheim.
Jackson Burnham holds a hastily-made sign in honor of the 54 points he scored for Laguna Hills in a win last week vs Westminster. Photo: Laguna Hills Athletics / OC Sports Zone.
Cal-Hi Sports Southern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Jackson Burnham (Laguna Hills) Jr.
It’s Orange County again for this stop to look for this week’s SoCal boys’ honoree, but it’s down south in a community to the southwest of I-5 in Mission Viejo and inland from Laguna Beach.
Burnham was burning the nets last week during a 92-42 contest vs Westminster. His teammates were all for it in an effort to let the 6-foot-4 junior combo guard go for the school record in a game in which he could have been taken out earlier. Jackson finished with 54 points and he broke the previous school record of 47 set in 1990 by Al Saldana.
But Burnham has had other outstanding outings in other games this season. Entering a Wednesday matchup with Valencia of Placentia, Burnham is averaging 17.4 ppg. In his previous game prior to the 54-point total, Jackson almost got a triple-double with 22 points, nine rebounds and nine assists in a victory vs Buena Park.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Boys Basketball Player of the Week
Jorell Clark (Palo Alto) Sr.
Just like they call it Pali in the south for Palisades High (the one that was ravaged last week by the Palisades fire), they call it Paly in the north for Palo Alto. The school is located across the street from Stanford University and has a great boys basketball tradition. It includes a 31-0 unbeaten season with a CIF state title in 1993, another state title in 2006 with future NBA superstar Jeremy Lin doing it all in a win vs Mater Dei and what we believe is more than 1,800 all-time wins since 1929. It’s at Paly this week where we find the school’s latest hoop star.
Clark came into this season after averaging 18 ppg and earning all-league honors as a junior. His averages for this season haven’t been reported yet, but several of his individual outings have been reported and Clark had a real good one last week. It came in a 63-50 win by the Vikings over their Palo Alto rivals from Gunn High and Jorell led all scorers with 32 points.
Clark could have been a NorCal player of the week for what he did earlier in the season at the Dame Lillard tourney in Oakland. He had 34 points in a double-overtime win vs Menomenee Falls of Oregon plus 33 points in a win vs Fremont of Oakland in the third-place game. Jorell also recently went past 1,000 points for his Paly career.
Karla DiMaggio of Willows is a multi-sport standout and recently completed an all-star season in volleyball. Photo: Willows HS Boosters / Facebook.com.
Cal-Hi Sports Northern California
Girls Basketball Player of the Week
Karla DiMaggio (Willows) Sr.
For our final stop this week, we go to the county seat of Glenn County in a small town located on I-5 about halfway between Sacramento and Redding. Karla shares the same last name of course of baseball immortal Joe DiMaggio. It also wasn’t long ago (last March) when we honored Jesse DiMaggio from Dos Pueblos of Goleta (near Santa Barbara) as our SoCal Baseball Player of the Week.
DiMaggio has been putting up big numbers for the Honkers on the basketball court only a couple of weeks after she had a CIF Northern Section all-star season on the volleyball court. In a 68-29 triumph last week vs Paradise, Karla established season highs of 34 points and seven steals.
Heading into a Tuesday night contest at East Nicolaus, DiMaggio has an average of 19.8 ppg. In December, she had 30 points in a win vs Central Valley of Shasta Lake and 26 points in a two-point win vs Modoc of Alturas.
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
