Time Machine: Unpacking a lot from the 1999-2000 boys basketball season

Sometimes you remember events because of irony and revisionist history.

Napa Valley has long been remembered as a football community when it comes to high
school sports. From Calistoga to the North to American Canyon to the South, each school
has had its Golden Ages of football. There have also been numerous athletes play at the
Div. I-A level such as Warren Bowers, Donnie Taylor, Jim Hunt, Tom Blanchfield, Sean
LaChappelle, Justin Dragoo, David Illsley, Steve Hendrickson and most recently John
Boyett, Ed Blanton, Mike Gibson, Chris Seisay, and Jomon Dotson. I could name many
more but in the interest of time and space, I’ll spare you.

In 1999-2000, however, the opposite occurred. Calistoga won the CIF North Coast Section
Class B title, its first section title since 1978 but that story resonated more in the Northern
part of the Valley than the rest. By no means do I disparage Calistoga. I covered a few of
their games that season. I loved that story. St. Helena struggled to a 2-8 season.
Justin-Siena was an up and coming team under then third-year head coach Rich Cotruvo
but missed the playoffs, going 6-4. Napa and Vintage each went 2-7-1 with the latter
winning Big game 18-14 in thrilling fashion. American Canyon High was not built until ten
years later.

In boys basketball, there have been pockets of success but not necessarily extended runs
of success.

The 1999-2000 boys basketball season in the City of Napa was one to remember in that
Vintage, Napa and Justin-Siena all played at high levels in the same season. Such a
campaign will be hard to duplicate any time soon.

The narratives were ultra-compelling. There is Justin-Siena, which is the smaller private
school of about 600 students (plus or minus a few). As a school and athletic program, the
Braves have long carried the underdog/little guy approach. Their narrative was everything
from “small but mighty” to “we get overlooked because of big schools” to “we’re competitive
for our size.” Justin fans, players and coaches alike would have liked nothing better than to
have a shot at Vintage or Napa.

Napa and Vintage, at the time, had enrollments of about 2,000 students (plus or minus a
few). They are the larger public schools. While Justin would love to have had its shot at
Napa and Vintage, at least a segment of fans of the latter scoffed at the idea of playing
Justin, citing that they were a Div-IV school while Napa and Vintage were Div-I. The Napa
and Vintage narrative was that playing Justin would be a no-win situation in that, “If we
beat them, we’re supposed to do so because we are a big school, they are a small school.
If we lose, we’ll never hear the end of it.” The narrative from a segment of Justin was, “We
welcome the challenge” to “They’re scared to play us.”

Justin went 27-4, which was best in school history. The Braves earned the No. 1 seed in
the Sac Joaquin Section Div-IV playoffs, going 15-0 against Superior California Athletic
League teams. The SCAL disbanded after that school year. Justin defeated Orestimba
(74-58) and Bret Harte (74-66) before losing to Colfax (58-53). The undersized Braves
had a dynamic backcourt of Garrett Halverson (21.6 points per game; 108 3-pointers),
Derek Flegal (18.2 points per game) and Jerrad Bullock (12.3 points, 8.1 rebounds, 4.1
assists, 3.1 steals) while Steve Andres (8.3 rebounds, 3.5 steals) played the Dennis
Rodman without the tabloids role.

Braves head coach Tom Bonfigli made certain the team’s season would not get derailed
after Flegal was forced to missed the rest of the season with four regular season games
remaining because of school disciplinary reasons.

Vintage went 24-5 under head coach Mike Flohr winning its first Monticello Empire League
title since 1976-1977. The Crushers were led by 6-6, 240-pound center Nick Basinger,
who added 25 pounds of muscle before the season to withstand double-teams. Basinger
averaged 22.6 points and 10.3 rebounds per contest. Basinger scored 20 or more points
20 times and topped the 30-point mark five times. With Ryan Hill, you had a solid
one-on-one defender who became more of a scoring threat by hitting 38 3-pointers. Point
guard Anis Salah, like Hill, also made a quantum leap as a senior, providing a steady
captain at point guard. His long arms could create steals and rebounds and he could knock
down open shots. Salah averaged seven assists in 16 MEL games.

The Crushers’ season ended as the No. 3 seed in the SJS D-I playoffs, losing at home to
No. 14 McClatchy (Sacramento) 59-57.

Napa went 22-9 finishing 12-4 in the MEL behind aforementioned champion Vintage and
runnerup Vallejo. Throughout the season, center Mike Stephens, who later went on to play
college basketball at Princeton, showed steady improvement as a junior. He averaged 17
points in Napa’s 16 MEL contests. The 6-foot-10 center also blocked 126 shots and altered
several others. Stephens recorded 50 steals. In the backcourt, Jay Bakker averaged 15.5
points, hitting 54 3-pointers while Peter Skidmore provided a steady presence whether
starting or coming off the bench.

Napa’s season ended as the No. 9 seed in the SJS Div. I playoffs, losing to Laguna Creek
(Sacramento) 57-48.

Reflections: I remember my friend, and colleague, Andy Ward, and I feeling like we had
an embarrassment of riches of high school basketball to cover. I also remember after going
back and forth in our All-Napa County team selections, we arrived at a co-Player of the Year
choice between Basinger and Halverson. The grovels we heard were endless. Both schools
had people that felt one should have won the award in solo fashion. This was a good
problem to have because there were years where the Player of the Year was the best of a
mediocre lot.

The irony of these team’s seasons is that all three schools along with American Canyon will
be joining the NCS as members of the Vine Valley Athletic League. Just think, this season
happened in the pre-social media era. You would actually have to call landlines or listen to
KVON for updates to get the score. Or heck, you just picked up the newspaper the next day.

In talking to parents, fans, etc. from all three schools throughout the season, each side had
strong opinions on what would have happened. Being MEL foes, the Napa-Vintage
matchups spoke for themselves. The Justin crowd had members that crowed, “Napa and
Vintage are scared to play us because we’re a small school.” Members of the Napa and
Vintage crowd scoffed, “They (Justin) can’t compete with us.”

We will truly never know what would have happened because the matchup never took place.
I see it as a prime example as “styles make fights.” Napa and Vintage would have had the
advantage in the frontcourt with Stephens and Basinger being equally adept at playing
back to the basket or hitting faceup jumpshots. However, I can also make a point that
Halverson, Flegal and Bullock would have been difficult matchups for Napa and Vintage’s
backcourt. All three could knock down 3-points and drive to the hoop.

Translation, in a half court game, I’ll say advantage Napa-Vintage but in an uptempo game,
I’ll say advantage Justin.

I feel confident in saying this much, outcomes would not have surprised me but blowout
wins either way would have.