This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Hoops Coach Hopes Tough Schedule Pays Off

Torino Johnson is preparing the Palisades High girls for their annual Beach Invitational.

Palisades High's girls basketball program is on the rise after winning the City Section Division II championship in March and the Dolphins are earning respect one ranked opponent at a time.

Coach Torino Johnson does not measure his team's success by wins and losses so much as how it fares against quality opponents. He wants to play the best teams available, and in keeping with that philosophy he has entered the Dolphins in three of the most competitive tournaments next season--Mater Dei, Oaks Christian and the Nike Tournament of Champions.

"To be the best you have to play the best and beat the best," Johnson said. "We want to have the reputation as a team that will play anyone, anytime. We're not ducking anyone." 

Find out what's happening in Pacific Palisadeswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Many of the best teams in California are participating in one or all of the tournaments, including defending state Division I champion Santa Ana Mater Dei, Long Beach Poly, Stockton St. Mary's and Concord Carondelet. Johnson has also lined up a game with perennial Southern Section powerhouse Brea Olinda in the one-day extravaganza at Mater Dei on January 15.  

Priority No. 1, however, is finding two teams to complete the field for the Dolphins' own Palisades Beach Invitational, which runs November 28 through December 3. Palisades won the tournament outright for the first time last season, beating eventual City Division I champion Carson 60-55 in the final.

Find out what's happening in Pacific Palisadeswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"I'm very excited about the teams we have coming and we're being very selective with who we choose," Johnson said. "There are still two slots open and I want to add two powerhouses so that everybody will be terrified when they see who they're going up against." 

Palisades loses only three varsity players to graduation--Nicole Flyer, Kseniya Shevchuk and Jessica Wang--and Johnson is excited about the incoming freshmen, particularly post player Bianca King from Paul Revere Middle School, who could make an immediate impact.

Joining the coaching staff will be Dion Thompson, formerly an assistant at Marlborough. Palisades went 25-10 last season and finished second behind Fairfax in the Western League.

The 14 teams that have already committed to play in the Palisades Beach Invitational are Locke, Canoga Park, St. Monica, Marymount, Westchester, Calabasas, Sierra Canyon, Carson, Culver City, Palos Verdes, Campbell Hall, La Salle, El Camino Real and, of course, host Palisades. 

"It's going to be a bracket play format and each school is guaranteed to play four games," Johnson said. "There's a healthy mixture of City [six] and Southern Section [eight] schools and it'll be a great way to start off our season."  

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?