LJ b BB: From the Hilltop side

By Ed Piper

Unfortunately for schools like Hilltop that are in a down cycle right now in their basketball program, today's high school student athletes can choose where they go to school, and they make liberal use of that opportunity.

With Luke Kelley in his second year as head coach, and from all evidence working hard to do a conscientious job, honestly, the Lancers didn't have players with the experience the La Jolla team members have in the two teams' tournament encounter Tues., Dec. 5. Shots looked a little off in form, ball-handlers weren't real adept, and the host team was badly out-matched from the beginning of the game.

Here, I'm one of the vocal ones for attending neighborhood schools. So, even with his team's hard luck, I applaud Coach Kelley's efforts.

After the Lancers' first two losses, going into the Vikings game, Kelley said, "I think we're realizing who we are. We definitely had improvement from our first game to our second game.

"We've only had our football players (after fall sports season ended) for about one week."

What's interesting on the human side in the Hilltop story is that Kelley played for Manny Silva, a retired long-time campus teacher and coach at Marian Catholic, Monte Vista, and Valhalla now working as an assistant on his staff, when Kelley was in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades at St. Rose of Lima School in Chula Vista. That was in the years 1998 to 2000. (See my separate story on Silva.)

Kelley, asked before the game what from Silva's coaching of him he has incorporated into his own coaching, said, "Definitely the work ethic."

"The game has changed so much, I don't use other things," he said, misunderstanding the intent of my question.

But: "It's been great to have him on the staff. He listens to the players, coaches."

"He's always giving advice. We're always comparing notes," said Kelley, the former player, of Silva, his former middle school coach.

"Brian Pike, our JV coach, also played for him at St. Rose of Lima," the Hilltop head coach said, indicating across the gym where Pike stood during the 6 p.m. game of the Hilltop Invitational Tournament, prior to the Viking-Lancer feature game of the night at 7:30 p.m.