STORY & PHOTOS BY GLENN NELSON
Courtney Collishaw | 
Hannah Donaghe |
OREGON CITY, Ore. - Whether it's the sun or the desert air, northeast of Los Angeles, they grow their girl's basketball players long, athletic and entertaining. That's at least the impression one gets from watching the West Coast Elite CenCal team do its thing. They're frenetic but organized, individually talented but team oriented, inside and outside, transition and halfcourt, offense and defense - the sum of parts.
Most of all, CenCal Elite has a following among college coaches. Its roster is full of legit mid-major Division I prospects, with a few major DI recruits thrown in. They finished third at the Arizona Elite Class, their first tournament, during the spring viewing period.
Some of its team-wide qualities are characteristic of a well-disciplined group. All the CenCal players move well and handle the ball. They maintain good position and vision on weakside help defense. And, like clockwork, they get the ball to the middle of the floor in transition.
Alas, what CenCal lacks is what all the very best club teams possess - a force in the middle, either offensively or defensively - and that was its downfall on Friday. Rolling into the quarterfinals, they were stopped by the Lubbock Hawks and their 6-foot-2 post Kelsey Ansley, who punished CenCal inside for 18 points.
The team's detour into the third-place bracket will not diminish the gratitude the likes of the Western Athletic Conference and the Pac-10 will express when they reap the bumper crop of guards and wings that the CenCal roster will yield.
The list begins - though, arguably, depending on the day - with Hannah Donaghe of Atascadero, Calif., a 5-11 bundle of energy who can get the ball to the cup off the dribble, pass off penetration, hit pull-up threes and defend with intensity and results. She had one of the sickest shots of the day - racing into the corner in transition and rising then ripping the net for three points. She has a good handful of Pac-10 schools after her, including Arizona State, Stanford, UCLA and Washington.
On another day - and arguably Friday was one - Courtney Collishaw of Visalia, Calif., heads the list. The 6-foot Collishaw hit up Lubbock for 17 points, most of them coming off what might be the prettiest and most sound stroke - from three and distances within - in the entire tournament. She also can attack off the dribble and finish with either hand, making her a fairly complete scoring machine, her only deficiency, if it can be called that, being size for postups.
There also are point guard Britt Peters of Bakersfield, Calif., who is quick, gets into cracks and can down the three, and guard Katie Menton of Coarsegold, Calif., who is compact and strong, aggressive and has a beautifully high-arcing three-point stroke that may be the most reliable on the team. The list of 2007 prospects on the CenCal roster does not end there.
Coming up in the Class of 2008 are two good-looking prospects - post Abby BloetsCher of Three Rivers, Calif., a 6-2 forward-post who may not have played enough against Lubbock, and Caty Huntington of Bakersfield, a 5-9 guard with tremendous closing speed who is playing, in spite of counsel against it, with a left elbow that recently was surgically repaired.
Perhaps even more than its prospects for the next level, the elan with which it plays is what makes the CenCal Elite a popular team to follow among basketball afficiandos. Their passion, work ethic and selflessness is fun to watch. And qualities too often missing during a time of year when things often get a bit too serious.
Britt Peters | 
Caty Huntington |
Glenn Nelson is the publisher of HoopGurlz.com and the editor-in-chief of Scout Media (www.Scout.com), an online sports network and magazine-publishing company and subsidiary of Fox Interactive Media. Glenn also founded and coached
the Dragons and Northwest HoopGurlz select girls basketball teams. He previously was a longtime, national-award-winning basketball columnist and writer for The Seattle
Times. His work also has appeared in several national magazines and books. He is co-author of "Rising Stars: The Ten Best Players in the NBA" (Rosen Publishing, 2002). He can be reached at hoopgurlz@comcast.net.
Our Complete 2006 End of the Trail Coverage Menu:
Singularly Sensational
In the absence of her team's superstar, Caroline Doty has emerged as an elite player in her own right.
EOT Watch - July 8
Who is this girl, Melissa Jones, and why are all those coaches following her in Oregon City?
Team to Watch: CenCal Elite
Courtney Collishaw and her CenCal Elite teammates make a splash at the End of the Trail.
EOT Watch - July 7
Breakdowns of players, including Kayla Standish, from the second day of competition.
EOT Watch - July 6
Breakdowns of players, including Kelsey Bone, from the first day of competition.
Team to Watch: EBX 15s
Alex Cowling and the East Bay Xplosion Black are poised to do damage on the viewing circuit.
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