Poway basketball coach optimistic about season with five straight wins so far

When Corey Clark accepted the head basketball coaching position at Poway High in 2022, he didn’t know he’d end up guiding two teams.

The varsity, sure. But when he couldn’t find a freshman coach, he took on that job, too.

Now, five of the players off that team and one who jumped right to the junior varsity form the core of a Titans team that heading into last weekend had won five straight games after starting the season 2-2 in Madison High’s Regional Rumble Tournament.

“Actually, there were six players off that team, but Luke Jorgensen decided he needed some rest after playing on the football team,” said Clark of the running back who gained 1,570 yards on 202 carries, scoring 20 touchdowns.

“I saw there was some potential early on from that freshman team. I saw those guys grow up into men and they’re all three-year varsity players. They’re the reason I’m so optimistic about this season.”

He actually expected a little slower start after seeing the toll a section championship and regional playoff took on the two-sport players a year ago.

Instead, he was pleasantly surprised as two football standouts, Cash Heverly and James Clifford, adapted quickly.

“We went 2-2 in the Regional Rumble, losing to Fountain Valley, a very good team from Orange County, 60-52, before playing Madison in the championship and having five chances to win that game at the end before losing, 59-56.”

Madison was ranked seventh in last week’s Union-Tribune poll while Poway was No. 12 after an impressive 72-64 victory over a tall, talented Ramona team heading into last weekend.

The former freshmen include:

–Clifford, a 6-foot-7 post player who Clark calls a “game changer” with his rebounding and ability to slam dunk inside.

–Grant Rodriguez, a 6-foot guard who earned first team All-Palomar League honors a year ago and is averaging 15+ points a game.

–The Sawyer Brothers, 6-2 Brandon and 6-foot Jake, who bring experience and competitiveness.

–Raul Avila Lopez, a 5-8 point guard who directs the show.

–Heverly, the sixth freshman who played junior varsity in the 9th grade. The 6-4 Heverly was a second team All-League player last year and against Ramona, shut down a Bulldogs player who lit up the scoreboard in the first half.

While that’s the core, it’s certainly not all the Titans have as Clark says clearly one of the strengths of the team is its depth.

Senior Grant Rodriguez leads the Titans, scoring better than 15 points a game; Brody Chapman is a 6-2 heady guard who is one of the team captains; 6-6 Daniel Mariduena collected an eye-popping 20 rebounds in that same Ramona game and is averaging 13 points and 10 boards a game; and Gage Blakemore, who averages seven assists a game.

Juniors Bryce Jones and Kemfon Ekiko are instant points off the bench, averaging almost eight points a game each in just 14 minutes of playing time.

“The reason we’re traveling to The Tark (the Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas) and playing in the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic is we hope to get challenged,” explained Clark. “They are both national tournaments and being in Division 2 this year, we are hoping to get one of the top two seeds, so we have home games in the playoffs.

“I used to worry a lot about wins and rankings, but not so much now. We’re focusing on the process on how to get better.”

Clark, who is 54-44 at Poway through the Ramona game, said right now the team does have a weakness: free throws.

“These guys don’t miss in practice, but it seems to be our Achilles Heel right now,” he said. “We were 10 of 22 against Sage Creek (a 65-49 win) and 10 of 18 against Ramona (a 72-64 victory).

“We came in early to shoot a lot of free throws in practice after the Sage Creek game, but it hasn’t shown yet.

“What this team has is a lot of players who have been in big games and know how to react. It’s one of our strengths.

“This is my ‘prove it’ year and we have a strong, veteran team,” he said.