Western League b BB: Saints on top alone

The Saints' Luke Haupt (left foreground) fist-bumps
with Viking coach Paul Baranowski (right)
to conclude the pregame captains' meeting
before La Jolla's game at St. Augustine
Jan. 19. Saints coach Mike Haupt is
in the background.
(Photo by Ed Piper)
 

By Ed Piper

"I feel good about the way we've been playing. I'm happy we finished the first round of league play without a loss," Misael "Misa" Rosado, point guard at St. Augustine, commented in Spanish after the Saints' win at home over La Jolla Jan. 19.

"It's good to have players like Chibuzo (Agbo) and Luke (Haupt). I can fill the role as the playmaker," said the 5'10" senior, who gets little attention for the number-one-ranked team due to his teammates' prominence.

Coach Mike Haupt's team has swept the field through the opening game of the second round of Western League play, having defeated top rival Mission Bay and Boogie Ellis, 64-55, and third-place Cathedral Catholic Thurs., Jan. 17, by the same margin.

Marshawn Cherry's Bucs beat the Dons, so the pecking order has been set: St. Augustine on top of the league standings--along with its ranking in first place in CIF San Diego; Mission Bay, the defending Open League champions, a step back; with the Dons the chambermaid to the bridesmaid.

Ever since Haupt's team had to weather the stormy departure of CIF Player of the Year Taeshon Cherry three weeks before official practice began in fall 2017, the squad dealt with a lack of senior leadership and had to develop new leadership from within.

That left Agbo, a coming star, and Luke Haupt, the coach's son--both 6'6" sophomores at the time and developing players--to begin to exert their influence on the team for the better.

Another local team went through a similar upheaval: Ryan Meier's Country Day squad, sporting lots of talent, saw two players depart among turmoil and transfer to Francis Parker after the 2016-2017 season. Both Haupt and Meier, in interviews, talk about "relationships" and say, "I like the team I have now," in pointed references to being older-but-wiser after experiencing malcontents who created divisiveness on their teams.