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It is no secret that the East Bay Athletic League is one of the top athletic leagues in Northern California, but also ranks among the best in the state.
Heading into the winter season, and the EBAL will be well-represented in basketball, soccer and wrestling. Good across the board in all three sports, the boys’ basketball teams are downright scary, but more on that in a bit.
The league format this year, for both the boys’ and girls’ hoops, is a single 10-team division, with the league consisting of playing every team once.
Following the regular season, all the teams advance to the EBAL playoffs.
The four-day tournament starts with No. 7 playing No. 10 and No. 8 facing No. 9. On the second day, the winners will play No. 5 and No. 6.
The winners of those two games will face No. 3 and No. 4. On the fourth day, those winners will face No. 1 and No. 2.
When the boys’ tournament rolls around, there are some very strong teams that will be out of the tournament early — teams that could make a deep run in the NCS playoffs and the CIF State playoffs.
Look at my initial Power Rankings for this season.
The top team is 11-0 De La Salle. The Spartans are always an elite program at the state level, but this looks like the best team they have had in some time.
The amazing thing? They are not a lock to win the EBAL title!
Dublin is 13-1 at the time of the first poll, with their only loss coming to 12-win Crespi 64-59. De La Salle did beat Crespi by 18, so there is an indication of the gap at this time between the Spartans and the rest of the league.
Taking the No. 3 spot for the first poll is 9-5 Dougherty Valley. The most recent game was a 54-50 loss to Sierra Canyon, a team 11-2 with both losses coming to teams outside of California. Oh yeah, it’s also where Bronny James played in high school.
The No. 4 team is 6-5 San Ramon Valley, the defending CIF NorCal D-I champs. The Wolves always play a brutally tough non-league schedule and are not fazed by the EBAL gauntlet.
They always play better as the season goes on, and there’s no reason to expect anything different this year.
I give teams like Dougherty Valley and San Ramon Valley so much respect that in my first rankings, I have them ahead of No. 5 California at 12-2, as well as non-ranked 10-2 Amador Valley and 11-2 upstart Livermore.
The Grizzlies are legit and sport losses to Dublin (54-45) and Foothill of Santa Ana (47-34). This is a Cal team that on any night can bite one of the top four in the rear end.
Amador Valley only has losses to 8-2 Moreau Catholic and Bullard out of the Fresno area. The only problem I see for the Dons at this point is they appear to be a team with only three scoring options.
That scoring depth will need to improve in the league season.
The surprise of the young season is Livermore coming out to an 11-2 start. Last season Livermore finished 7-20 overall and given they have already picked up more wins than last season, the Cowboys may have something up their sleeves.
Monte Vista is 9-5 and has played an above average non-league schedule, so expect the Mustangs to be a tough out this year.
The lone team that has dropped off the table is Granada. The Mats went to the CIF title game two years ago, then lost in the NorCal finals to San Ramon Valley last season. There was reason to expect some drop-off after getting hit hard by graduation.
Still, this is a team that knows how to play in big games so always count them being there in crunch time.
On the girls’ side it appears a two-team fight for the top spot between two-time defending champ San Ramon Valley and Carondelet.
Dublin, California and Dougherty Valley will battle for the middle spots in the league.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation.
