RICHMOND — The Bay Area News Group player of the year usually recognizes the person who carries the heaviest lift for one of the top teams, generally the leading scorer or playmaker.
But what happens when all the players on the best team were connected as one, that their buy-in to the team concept was so universal that not a single one averaged more than 10 points per game?
What happens when the team without egos had one of the area’s best seasons of the era, capturing the Northern California Open Division championship and coming within 90 seconds of dethroning the defending champion in the state final?
Here is what happens:
At the Bay Area News Group, we decided to make a dramatic exception to the player of the year award.
Instead of recognizing one player, we have honored 16. Instead of selecting the best player on the top team, we have chosen all of them.
The Bay Area News Group’s boys basketball players of the year for the 2023-24 season are the members of the Salesian Pride, the team that played every game as it preached, the team that cared more about winning than who scored the most points, the team that finished 31-2 and was the runner-up to Harvard-Westlake in the Open Division state championship game.
From Aaron Hunkin-Claytor to Zander Jimenez, from De’Undrae Perteete to Amani Johnson, from Alvin Loving to Elias Obenyah, from Carlton Perrilliat to Isaiah Davis and on and on, they are all deserving of this news organization’s top honor.
The players made a pact that the scoreboard was more important than the scoring column, that sharing the ball was more effective than isolation ball, that defense as a unit was as or more crucial than anything else.
Salesian’s De’Undrae Perteete shoots a three-point basket against Harvard-Westlake during the CIF Open Division state basketball final at Golden 1 Center in Sacramento on March 9, 2024. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
How did it happen?
“It started last year, building that chemistry,” Perteete said. “I don’t think too many people averaged more than double digits and it carried over to this year. The chemistry helped us get all these wins. Nobody cared who scored, just as long as we got the win.”
The unselfishness led to a season for the ages at the Richmond private school, which has had great teams under its longtime coach, Bill Mellis, but not one that generated victories at the highest level quite like this one.
After going winless in five previous appearances in the Open Division state playoffs, the elite classification the California Interscholastic Federation added in 2013, Salesian beat Modesto Christian and Archbishop Riordan to win the NorCal Open title.
In the state final, the Pride overcame a 10-point deficit after the first quarter against Harvard-Westlake to go blow for blow with the Southern California powerhouse in the second half.
When Obenyah scored with 1:31 to play, Salesian led 45-44.
Then, in an ironic twist, the players who sacrificed individual headlines for team triumphs were beaten in the final 90 seconds by a McDonald’s All-American.
USC-bound Trent Perry scored Harvard-Westlake’s final six points to defeat Salesian 50-45.
After complimenting the back-to-back champions in a postgame news conference, Mellis turned the attention to his own players, who surrounded him on the stage.
“My thing really is more about this group and how special the group has been,” Mellis said. “I know I am speaking on behalf of all the coaches, we have had so much fun coaching this group because not only did they buy-in to everything that we were teaching, they bought into sharing the ball, they brought into playing defense. Great group. Great kids. High GPAs. Kind of the whole package.
“I’m sad obviously because we lost the game but sad because this season is over. It was really fun.”
Salesian’s Aaron Hunkin-Claytor (30) knocks the ball out of the hands of De La Salle’s Arshawn Salkhi during the North Coast Section Open Division title game at Contra Costa College in San Pablo on Feb. 23, 2024. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group)
The fun included an overtime victory over Branson in the Gridley Invitational final, winning an elite tournament in Idaho, a third-place finish in the top division at a national tournament in Southern California, two wins over Riordan, one over Archbishop Mitty and victories over San Ramon Valley and De La Salle in the North Coast Section playoffs.
Salesian’s only losses were in overtime to St. John Bosco, which won the Division I state championship, and the nail-biter against Harvard-Westlake for the Open state crown.
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Hunkin-Claytor is the Pride’s only Division I college commit in the senior class. He signed with Hawaii. The team also will lose Perteete, Jimenez and Johnson to graduation.
But with Loving, Obenyah, Davis and Perrilliat among the players expected back, Mellis was asked a question about the future, if he feels good about the culture carrying over to next season.
“That’s never necessarily up to the coaches,” he said, before adding. “I do feel good about it. We’ve created that culture not just because of this year. It has happened for quite some time.”
Then, Mellis noted, “This group, I think, was the pinnacle of it.”
WHO IS ELIGIBLE AND HOW SELECTIONS ARE MADE
Athletes eligible for all-Bay Area News Group recognition come from leagues based predominantly in Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. The selections this season were made by the Bay Area News Group’s Darren Sabedra, Joseph Dycus and Nathan Canilao.