'We'll Be Back': After Second 20-Win Season in Row, Calabasas Boys Have Big Plans; Baseball and Swimming Preview

The basketball season ended for Calabasas High’s boys’ team last Friday with a 68-56 second-round playoff loss to Cerritos, but the Coyotes (20-9)  have a lot to feel good about.

“It was nice to get the 20-win mark for the second consecutive season,” coach Jon Palarz said. “Our core group of seniors went 44-14 over the past season with one Marmonte League title and one time finishing one game back this year. It was a nice run they had.”

No one is quite sure what happened against Cerritos. The cold-starting Coyotes fell behind by 16 points in the first quarter and trailed by as many as 24 in the first half.

“We just had an awful first quarter, and there was no way around that,” Palarz said. “It turned out to be a grave rather than just a hole, and that was very uncharacteristic of our team. In only one other game all season, we didn’t get to the stretch run with a chance to win. Maybe we were overconfident after winning the first playoff game by 30 points, I just don’t know.”

Calabasas has a lot of good players returning, particularly point guard Jeremy Lieberman, shooting guard Spencer Levy and forward Josh Cohan.

Lieberman started the whole season as a freshman and finished with 127 assists, an average of 4.5 per game, and he has a huge upside. Cohan and Levy started, and Max Hoetzel, a 6-foot-6 shooting guard, was the sixth man; all will be back.

“Jeremy showed that he’s a dynamic player, Cohan can score and rebound, and he has a good frame, and Spencer was our top 3-pointer shooter,” Palarz said. “Max, I’m looking for some good things from him.”

ARE YOU READY FOR BASEBALL?

Calabasas has finalized its baseball roster, and the first game is next Friday against Harvard-Westlake at Franklin Fields in Encino.

Here is the roster:

Calabasas High baseball roster

No. NAME, POS, Yr.

1 Jordan Bass, C, Sr.

4 Justyn Lee, INF, Jr.

 7 Ian Sales, OF, RHP, Sr.

10 Josh Ehrlich, OF, Jr.

12 D.J. Wilkin, C, Jr.

13 Trevor Weiss, OF, C

15 Alex Rubanowitz, SS, Sr.

16 Anthony Dicosimo, 3B, Jr.

17 Adam Luther, OF, 3B, Jr.

19 Max Shifman, 3B Jr.

23 Brett Bachelis, 1B, Jr.

25 Jacob Camhi, OF, Jr.

27 Travis Cassidy, LHP, Sr.

34 Ben Vizvary, 1B, Jr.

42 Sean Ladendecker, Sr.,

44 Brandon Post, OF, RHP, So.

Coach: Ed Edsall

VIEWPOINT PREPARES TO HIT POOL AGAIN

Viewpoint has a top swimming program, and the Patriots should be strong again this year for boys and girls as the team joins the Delphic League, as the boys come in with a streak of six consecutive league titles and are the reigning CIF champions.

The girls join the league having won five consecutive league title and coming off a season in which they finished fifth in the CIF.

“The boys and girls teams both feel that they have an excellent opportunity to compete for both a league and CIF title this season,” c-coach Greg Bisheff said. “Their efforts in the offseason have put them in a position where we might be a deeper, more balanced team then we were last season.  We are looking forward to seeing what new swimmers emerge as the season progresses, and we are hoping to take another large contingent of swimmers to CIF.”:

The boys captains are Devin Nagendran and Sean Gunn. Viewpoint also returns seniors Brian Salomons, Isaac Wender and Sean Gunn and sophomores John Brody and Liam Gunn, all of whom contributed last year at CIF.

The girls captains are Katie Herron and Nina Leonard. Also returning are senior Riley Cook, juniors Natalie Brainin, Lindsay Gartman, Catherine Desoer and Paige Handy and sophomores Sydni Hammar, Kayla Mason, and Flora Tennant.

The season begins Tuesday at Maranatha in Pasadena.