West Lutheran heading to California tournament

The snow that fell earlier this week might have been a nuisance to many, but it was a welcome reminder to the West Lutheran boys' and girls' basketball teams that today could not come fast enough.

The Warriors leave for sunny California today to play in the Great Western Lutheran Shootout, which this year is at California Lutheran High School in Wildomar, Calif.

Wildomar is about 75 miles southeast of Los Angeles, on the eastern edge of the Cleveland National Forest.

"Our kids are so excited to go," said Steve Jensen, West Lutheran athletic director and boys' basketball coach. "Doing this gives both teams a chance to do something together and build team unity."

The tournament brings together teams from Lutheran schools of the Wisconsin Synod denomination from around the nation. In addition to West Lutheran and the host school, other schools sending teams are Nebraska Lutheran, Arizona Lutheran and Evergreen Lutheran of Washington.

The Warriors boys won the tournament championship last year while the girls' team finished second.

But winning and losing is secondary to the experience the players receive, Jensen said.

"A lot of our kids made friends with players from other teams last year. Some of them still communicate with each other through e-mail and such."

Both West Lutheran teams have a busy schedule. They will play three games in three days -- Thursday, Friday and Saturday -- and spend the rest of their time in fellowship with players from other teams and seeing the sights in and around Wildomar.

"We even have a trip to the ocean scheduled," Jensen said. "We're going to have dinner at a restaurant that's at the end of a long pier in Oceanside."

While many family members will be traveling with the team, those who do not will still be able to watch Warriors basketball. The games will be streamed online at www.clhs.chawks.org.

At her current pace, Minneapolis South guard Tayler Hill should break the state's all-time scoring record sometime in February.

Hill, South's uber-talented senior guard and the reigning Metro Player of the Year, began the season with 2,941 career points, good for sixth in the state's list of the top career scorers in girls basketball.

The record of 3,694 points is held by current Minnesota Gopher Katie Ohm, who set the record in 2005 while at Elgin-Millville High School.

Hill has scored 133 points in the season's first four games and, as of Monday night, has 3,074 career points.

She is averaging 33 points per game.