Basketball: Homegrown La Cañada Team Makes Town Proud

When the La Cañada boys basketball team cut a 49-40 deficit to four and had a momentary chance to slice it to two with the score 49-45, the crowd supporting the Spartans was in a frenzy.

But Bruce English, a senior guard for La Verne Lutheran scored after a steal setting in motion an 8-0 run that sealed the game for the Trojans and the CIF State Southern Regional Boys Division 3 title game Saturday.

By virtue of its 57-47 win, La Verne Lutheran will play for a state title in Sacramento next Saturday.

“It took a better team to beat us today,” said La Cañada coach Tom Hofman, whose team finishes 30-4 and with a CIF divisional championship for the school’s trophy case.

Inevitably, the question was raised about having to play against a private school team that boasts four players already committed to playing big time Division I college basketball and, arguably, plays by different rules regarding how it garners its players.

“I think they definitely have an advantage being a private school, but this year we came out and we beat Price. They’re in the exact same situation,” said La Cañada's senior guard Michael McGlashan, who led the Spartans with 19 points.

“We were with them the whole game, so it proves that public schools can compete with private schools,” McGlashan added.

Hofman said he’d prefer that private and public schools have separate leagues and CIF playoffs, and then the two should meet in the state playoffs afterwards.

“In a perfect world, I’d like to see public and private CIF leagues, and then when you get to the state playoffs let us all play each other and you see what happens,” Hofman said.

Mason Holle, who scored seven points in the loss, and like McGlashan is a senior, said he liked things the way they are.

“When you get a team like us, being a homegrown school, when you get this great story, this great run in the playoffs, we proved everybody wrong,” Holle said. “Nobody thought that we could do what we did.”

La Verne Lutheran coach Eric Cooper Sr. has a unique vantage point when it comes to La Cañada basketball.

“The first city that I started my clinics in was La Cañada,” said Cooper. “And a lot of these kids I’ve seen since they were 10 years old. (Matt) Faber’s father opened up the gym for us. I fell in love with the community. They’re a great, great community.”

Cooper noted that La Cañada and not his team won the CIF-Southern Section Division 3AA championship this season.

It may be tougher, but it’s not impossible to win with local talent, Hofman conceded. 

“You could win with local kids,” he said. “We won a CIF championship in a division that we had no chance to win. It can be done. I hope our run here inspires some other teams.

“What’s exciting is to have that crowd. For two weeks that’s all anybody could talk about here. La Cañada basketball. I hope other communities can see this. Maybe we’ll do it again sometime.”