Santa Monica High School Basketball Season Preview and Opening Night Prediction

                     Santa Monica High School Basketball Preview

By Jayden Montanez and Luke Hecht

Recap of last season: In the 2021-2022 Santa Monica Basketball season, the Vikings were crowned Bay League Champions. Led by the Co-MVP’s of the league the Vikings ran through the league tournament upsetting the one seed Mira Costa and beating the centaurs in their backyard in the Championship game. The Vikings fell to the Calabasas Coyotes in the second round but the season was a success. Only having two Senior key contributors, the Vikings seemed to be able to run the 22-23 season with the same players. Despite this, the Santa Monica basketball team is very different as many players have transferred away.

New Beginnings: Confidence is still very high surrounding the team though, as returning key Varsity players Anton Berge-Wells (Class of 2024), Paco Vandenbrook (Class of 2024), Luke Hecht (Class of 2024), and Joshua Hecht (Class of 2023) are all back and ready to take a bigger role. In addition to this, new stars emerge as Jayden Xu (Class of 2025), Holden Hendrickson (Class 2024), and Brenton Banister (Class of 2025) are all hoping to bring the Vikings back to the top of the Bay.

Game One preview: In their first matchup they play Van Nuys, who are coming off a good season as well. They made it all the way to the Los Angeles City section championship game. With new head coach, Evan Porter they look to have a better year and win the championship game this year. The Two teams did square off against each other last year and Santa Monica ended up winning 47-83 but both teams have a lot of new players. In addition to this, status of many Samo players is in the air including Holden Hendrickson (ankle) and Joshua Hecht (sick). The Vikings will need some of their new players to step up in order to get the win.

Prediction: Due to the new young talent of the vikings, and the unknowns about Van Nuys, we have predicted the Vikings to win in convincing fashion. In our prediction, Jayden Xu should lead the team in points, Luke Hecht leads the team in assists. We think the freshman, Jake Vanderveen (Class of 2026), will be a glove, leading the team in steals. While high risers, Paco Vandenbrook and Anton Berge-Wells crash the boards, leading the team in rebounds. In addition to this Berge-Wells will be sending shots out of the gym, as he will have the most blocks. 

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