Palisades coach remembers when City basketball

When Jeff Bryant was taking part in high faculty basketball at Sylmar, the top groups in the City Section have been yearly among the best in California.

“The City dominated back in the day,” Bryant, now the top coach at Palisades, said Tuesday before Southern California Regional Division II boys’ basketball closing. His Dolphins misplaced a heartbreaker, 59-57 at Bakersfield Christian, falling a win short of a journey to Sacramento for the state finals.

Eleven days earlier Palisades captured the City Open Division crown, going undefeated against part opponents, and with 10 gamers — including all 5 starters — returning next season, Bryant not only has his sights set on a repeat, he desires to reverse a 15-year development during which City groups have struggled to compete at the very best degree.

City boys groups received the state’s top division 5 instances in six years from 1993-98 and seven instances in 9 years from 2002-10. However, since the Open Division debuted in 2013 only two City groups have superior to the regional finals in that division — Westchester in 2014 and Fairfax in 2015 — and the last time a City crew made the Open bracket was 5 years in the past when Birmingham misplaced in the first spherical.

Bryant, who graduated in 2006, will probably be rooting for his former coach on Friday when his alma mater performs for the Division V state championship under the steering of Bort Escoto, who piloted the Spartans to the City Division II title on the same evening Palisades received the Open Division. Sylmar was dropped down to Division V for regionals and ran the desk.

Birmingham was upset by Fairfax in the opening spherical of the City Open Division playoffs Feb. 11 and dropped to Division III for the regional match. The Patriots have since reeled off 4 convincing victories and will also play for a state title Friday afternoon.

Birmingham and Sylmar are the latest City groups to benefit from regional playoff growth in which groups are positioned a number of divisions decrease from where they performed in their part. Chatsworth superior to the Division II state closing last winter after dropping in the City Open Division closing and reached the Division IV state closing after its City Open semifinal loss two years in the past. Like Sylmar this season, Verdugo Hills was the City Division II champion in 2024 and went on to play for the Division V state title.

On the ladies’ aspect, no City squad has received an Open Division state playoff sport. Five groups from the part have acquired berths in the very best division over the last 14 years, but none since Fairfax in 2018. Narbonne is the last City crew to conquer the state’s top division, claiming back-to-back Division I titles in 2000 and 2001, long before the Open debuted.

Like the boys, City women’ groups fare properly when dropped to decrease divisions.

Palisades, which fell in the first spherical in the City Open Division, performs for the state Division IV crown Saturday while City Open Division champion Westchester was seeded 14th in Division I for regionals and misplaced in the first spherical. Granada Hills went to the Division III state finals two years in the past after dropping in the first spherical of the City’s Open Division.

Before taking the helm at Palisades, Bryant guided West Ranch of the Southern Section into the Open Division regional playoffs in 2023. Now he goals to do the same at a faculty in the part he once performed in.