Eagles dial long distance in season opener

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers NOTHING BUT NET—Oak Park High junior guard Steven Brodie puts up a shot Tuesday night in he Eagles' season opener against Santa Paula. OPHS is the defending Tri-Valley League champ. It seems the farther away the Oak Park High boys' basketball team gets from the basket, the more successful they become.

The Eagles, fresh off a TriValley League championship campaign that saw the squad go 22-8 overall and 11-1 in league, began this season on the proper note by defeating Santa Paula at home, 68-58, Tuesday night.

More than half of the Eagles' points came from downtown, as OPHS hit a dozen 3pointers, including eight in the first half.

Head coach Joey Ramirez expects the long-range shooting to be one of the Eagles' deadliest weapons this year.

"As you can see, we have a very small team in height," Ramirez said.

"We want to spread the floor and break defenses down so we have room to shoot the 3-pointer."

Oak Park's top shooter may very well be senior Sam Levine. On Tuesday, Levine scored a teamhigh 22 points and hit six 3pointers. Levine averaged 8.9 points per game last season.

With Oak Park graduating 11 players from a year ago, Ramirez is now expecting more from Levine, especially in the leadership department.

"He's expected to do a little of everything this year, and he has the potential to do just that," Ramirez said. "I thought he played great (Tuesday), but I took him out of the game and told him I need him to be more vocal with the rest of the team."

Levine agreed that he needs to assert himself on the court.

"Being a leader on the team is something I cherish," Levine said. "I learned a lot from watching last year's leader, Andy Winningham, and I'm just hoping I can continue to do what he did."

Other Oak Park players that will spark the offense include senior Jonathan Gundell, sophomore guard Landon Hajdu, junior guard Steven Brodie and junior forward Austin Ramljak.

Considering the forward has constantly dealt with injuries while at OPHS, Ramirez was especially impressed with Ramljak's 10point effort in the opener.

"He's had a heel problem for years, and Tuesday night was actually his first career high school game," Ramirez said. "He's a great player, and he has a basketball IQ that you just can't teach."

Ramljak said it felt great to finally contribute.

"It was a relief and a lot of fun being out there on the court," Ramljak said. "I wasn't nervous at all of not playing well or getting injured again."

The most surprising player on the squad, however, has to be Hajdu, who scored 14 points against Santa Paula in his first career varsity game.

"His performance has kind of come as a shock because he only played freshman ball last year, not junior varsity," Ramirez said. "So that's a big jump to make. He did a great job on offense for us, and he can shoot the ball well, but he needs to be better on defense."

In fact, after the win all the Eagles could talk about was how they needed to improve the defense.

"This win almost feels like a loss," Levine said. "Defensively, we need to be stronger. I'm sure when we come to practice this week we're going to focus more on that."

Ramirez said team chemistry has been great thus far. Oak Park has given itself the moniker "Band of Brothers" and have made Tshirts with the word "Discipline" on them.

"It's only my second year coaching at Oak Park, but the level of play isn't going to change," Ramirez said.

"We know we have to win, and we're all about putting the best product out on the floor. We're going to go out and play extremely hard this season and let the chips fall where they may."