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Hey Coach Steve Alford! Shouldn't you talk to Coach Mora about St. John Bosco? Better yet, how about our QB of the future, Josh Rosen. He's just the number one rated quarterback in the country, and going into his senior year at Bellflower St. John Bosco.
I know, the NCAA rules prevent that, but you get the drift. Bellflower St. John Bosco is a football and basketball national powerhouse. Why don't we have commitments from Daniel Hamilton (grant-in-aid commitment from UConn - NLI not signed), Tyler Dorsey (committed to Arizona, but recruited over three times) and Vance Jackson (going into junior year)? Yep, you read that right. We have (or had) three targets at one school. Oh, and by the way, Isaac Hamilton, brother of Daniel, is already a Bruin (perhaps we got lucky on this one - he decommitted from UTEP and wanted to come home to LA).
Digression. You might ask: how is this team not California State Champions? Good question. Mater Dei won it all for 2014. There may not have been enough balls on the court at once for Bosco. Mater Dei didn't have that problem. Stanley Johnson had the ball 32 minutes every game. Suffice to say, you can win that way in high school in California these days. I talked about NYC high school basketball here. Things have changed. If that group can't win a high school championship, why would we want them all at UCLA? Another good question. Daniel Hamilton fills a hole left by Jordan Adams right now. Do I want the whole Bosco team? Maybe not, but we should have an excellent shot at it year-in, year out.
Read here and here about Bellflower St. John Bosco. They were the MaxPrep 2013 National Champs in football and California High School Champions in 2014. They were rated #21 nationally in basketball for the 2013-14 season.
Here is a list, from Wikipedia, of professional athletes who graduated from Bosco:
- James Cotton, former NBA player
- Joe Cowan, graduated in 2003 and holds numerous school yeah records in track and field as well as football; played for the UCLA Bruins' football program.
- Patrick Cowan, an NFL free agent who was signed to New Orleans Saints but later released. Graduated in 2004, former starting quarterback for the UCLA Bruins football team.[6]
- Nomar Garciaparra, graduated in 1991, from 1996 to 2009, played for the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Oakland Athletics. He was most famous during his tenure with Boston Red Sox during which he was a member of the "Holy Trinity of Shortstop", along with Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.
- Todd Husak, former Stanford and NFL Quarterback
- Dennis Lamp, from 1977 through 1992, Lamp pitched for the Chicago Cubs (1977-80), Chicago White Sox (1981-83), Toronto Blue Jays (1984-86), Oakland Athletics (1987), Boston Red Sox (1988-91) and Pittsburgh Pirates.
- Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays third baseman, graduated in 2003.
- Leon McFadden, Cleveland Browns cornerback.
- Keith Price, starting quarterback for the Washington Huskies football team[
- Sean Sellers, drummer for the punk bands Good Riddance and The Real McKenzies
- Bud Smith, MLB pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals during the 2001-2002 season. He is noted for being one of only 18 pitchers in MLB history since 1900 to throw a no-hitter during their rookie season.
The UCLA staff needs to be best buddies with everyone in this school down to the nurses, janitors and admin assistants. Just like every star quarterback from Mater Dei goes to USC (BTW, Damien Mama, the second-highest profile football player from Bosco next to Josh Rosen, choice USC), the Bruins should be first out of the mouths of every aspiring college star, football and basketball, from Bosco.
I, and others at BN, have recounted many times about how the Howland and Alford regimes don't seem to be doing well locally. We did land McDonald's All-American, Thomas Welsh and Aaron Holiday for 2015, but the preponderance of the 2015 offers are to out-of-staters.
Everyone knows that recruiting success for UCLA will come from a West Coast focus, layering in working three and four year players, and going after the national five stars when we have the "in." Even I, in my infancy at BN, wrote that.
I'm not a local high school expert (fourteen more years before my son is ready), so I would love to hear from Bosco graduates. I'd also love to hear from graduates and other interested parties from Bishop Gorman, Bishop O'Dowd, and, yes, Mater Dei. Comment or write a fanpost. Let's make this a series about the schools we should be on.