Note: Varsity [V] or junior varsity [JV] denotations next to player names show what level they will compete at for the 2015-2016 season (ie teams with [V] players on the roster may not compete in JV divisions, but [JV] players may compete in either division). This is preliminarily based off of a two years’ experience cutoff. If you feel like any of these are incorrectly classified, please get ahold of me through Facebook or email and let me know.
Albany – graduates Sean Lin (San Jose State) but retains top scorers junior Andrew Liu [V] and senior Madeline Zhang [V]. The team has a little bit of a negging problem (possibly decreased with Sean’s graduation) and needs to raise their PPB, but they were able to close out last season with a 7th place finish at (an admittedly emaciated) NorCal State. The A team can probably expect lower-top 10 finishes.
Amador Valley – relatively inactive team that retains top scorers senior Jason Chen [V] and junior Manan Khattar [JV], who both show potential but need teammates’ support and to clean up their negging.
Archbishop Mitty – retains top scorer senior Siddharth Kulkarni [V] but didn’t manage to develop past a one-man team over the last season and will likely remain the same unless there was major expansion this summer.
Bellarmine – graduates the entirety of their HSNCT t-13 and PACE 11th A team (Jonchee Kao [UC Berkeley], Abhishek Aditham [UC Berkeley], Alejandro Buendia [Columbia], Jarek Jankowski [Notre Dame]) + more (Gavin Pereira [University of Arizona], Namit Mishra [UC San Diego]) and sees growing rates of inactivity among its best remaining players. Retains sophomore standout Atul Saha [JV] and a relatively balanced group of lowerclassmen but will definitely not field a team of 2014-2015 calibre for at least this season.
Chinese Christian – retains junior Benson Yi [V] but graduates main support Calvin Chiu (UC Santa Barbara). Benson took the JV circuit by storm in the beginning of the last season but saw a huge increase in competition towards the end of the year, as well as a drop in activity. If Benson has been studying and found a replacement for Calvin, they could do decently in their new division.
College Preparatory School – graduates top scorer Andrew Vaughn (Cornell) from an extremely inactive program. Retains senior Nikhil Pandit [JV] who showed potential but definitely needs to rebuild anything resembling a team.
Crystal Springs Uplands – retains top scorer senior Shasta Ramachandran [JV] from an extremely inactive program.
Cupertino – retains top scorer junior Mihir Khambete [V] and essentially all other players of note. Should see decent to good finishes in their new division.
Davis – graduates Jayanth Sundaresan (UC Berkeley), Alex Chen (MIT), and Zach Hertz (Tufts) but retains all of their other best players from last year (seniors Anthony DiCarlo [V], Teddy Knox [V], Henry Zhang [V]; junior Eliot Williams [V], sophomore Ethan Skinner [JV]), which includes the majority of their PACE 22nd team. Each team in their incredibly deep bench periodically has its problems with negging and bonus conversion, but the A team will almost definitely dominate the circuit for this season and the program as a whole will remain strong for several years to come.
Dougherty Valley – graduates lead scorer Eric Chen (UC Berkeley) and teammates Cody Zeng (UC Berkeley), Samuel Zhang (UC Berkeley), Sui Feng Xiu (UC Irvine), but retains seniors Larry Liang [JV], Bibhav Poudel [V], Effie Jia [JV], Yash Sharma [V], and sophomore Simon Han [JV]. While they won’t reach the same level the 2014-2015 team was able to compete at, they should still hold their own in varsity.
“Escobar” – graduates top scorer Kelvin Lu (MIT) but retains seniors Karthik Bharathala [V], Dhruv Muley[V]; juniors Anup Hiremath [V], Trevor Wu [JV]; and sophomore Prasana Gutti [JV]. Faces a challenge with Kelvin’s graduation but with Dhruv’s 46ppg at HSNCT, they could perform quite well at a varsity level.
Evergreen Valley – graduates top scorer Charlie Tian (UC Berkeley) and retains senior Ashwinee Panda [JV]. Will likely be decent in junior varsity.
Folsom – played their first tournament last year, unfortunately a pretty inactive and lower-level JV team and will probably remain as such.
Harker – retains top scorers junior Nikhil Manglik [V] and sophomore Edgar Lin [JV]. Has historically had pretty strong players but are unfortunately usually inactive.
Homestead – graduates lead scorer Karthik Srivatsan (Michigan), Alex Lei (UC Davis), and Richard Chen (UC Berkeley), but retains three-quarters of their HSNCT dark horse t-8 team and more, including senior Jessica Chen [V] and juniors William Scott [V], Brandon Herren [V], and Tom Gabrielson [V]. If they’ve been studying hard this summer and found someone to fill Karthik’s spot, they stand a good chance at giving Davis a run for their money and will probably sit at a safe second in the circuit if not.
Leland – new team that retains top scorers seniors Sathvik Nair [JV], Kyle Cui [JV] and junior Hari Krishna [JV]. They made the trip to PACE and seem to have a healthy club, but will likely remain at a JV level unless they’ve put in lots of work this summer.
Lynbrook – graduates top scorer Oliver Dong (UC Berkeley), but will hopefully develop and perhaps be decent in the JV circuit.
Menlo-Atherton – low-activity team that typically only attends novice tournaments, although they did win Bellarmine Novice and retain their top scorers seniors Mason Seymour [JV] and Griffin Kardos [JV]. Likely will stay the same this season.
Monta Vista – new team that retains top scorer sophomore Anjini Venugopal [JV], will likely be decent in JV if they’re more active, especially if Anjini gets support.
Moreau Catholic – graduates Omkar Salpekar (UC Berkeley), otherwise retains some decent JV players.
Northgate – new team that retains juniors (?) David Leynov [JV] and Josh Quiambao [JV] that could be decent in their division with development, but are unfortunately pretty inactive.
Palo Alto – retains one lead scorer senior Trevor Filseth [V], graduates other lead scorer Max Krawcyzk (Columbia) and fixes most of their neg problem with that. Unclear for now if Trevor will have enough support, but will likely maintain top 5 finishes this season.
Rio Americano – loses lead scorer senior Jonathan Gutmann (studying abroad) and will probably remain a relatively inactive JV-level team this season.
Saratoga – graduates solo PACE 27th lead scorer Bruce Lou (UC Berkeley) and other occasional A team members Ethan Ngai (Washington University) and Nitya Sampath (University of Washington). Senior Nate Ney [JV] and juniors Bryant Chang [JV] and Mason Tian [JV] could help Saratoga reach decent JV finishes.
Valley Christian – retains their core A team of juniors Omeed Askary [V], Andrew Rao [V], Dhilip Raman [V]. If they’ve been studying and refining their playing strategy (especially in terms of aggression), they could probably finish in the top 5 at the varsity level.
Looking forward to another great season!
