Who is that woman-child prep sophomore player among girls in LA who reminds us of Blake Griffin’s sophomore year in the L?
She is 6-1 Faith Boulanger of Burbank Burroughs High, class of 2021.
As for the Blake Griffin reference, we haven’t forgotten our departed Detroit brother, have we? Him trying to be more than a dunker after his rookie year? Dude was serious about building his small forward skills in LA not too long ago.
B-Griffin perfected his outside shot in LA. Boulanger reminds me of Blake, as she is now working on her own ball handling skills to impact her own next level game.
Want to see Blake’s echo in LA? Get to Burroughs High, or the Balboa Hills AAU squad, and watch the Faith Boulanger Blake Show rerun to be sure.
How tall is 6-1 for a girl? The equivalent for a guy would be 6-8 straight up. Faith’s height equals Blake‘s height, get it now people?
What impresses me most about Faith? It’s not her super fit condition, elegant in-game power forward moves, her tough defense.
No. It’s the nuance of her IQ, her meticulous manner by which she seems like a decade more experienced than other girls I’ve watched her play against.
Where’s that come from? So, so much of that comes from her adoring dad, Tom. In math, 3 plus 3 equal 6, right? This father-daughter tandem builds a chemistry that makes 3 to the power of 3, equaling 27, feel me? 27 shades of kindness in their love to learn the game together, 27 displays of ferocity, 27 gestures of diligence.
What else would you expect from Faith, considering she’s blessed to have an awesome dad who is a long-time athletic director for a private school and has been a Snow Valley Camp counselor and still coaches volleyball. This man is a coach’s coach, that humble, wise dude.
Do I respect him? Mucho, mucho.
When I tell you Faith has long arms, long body, ripped muscles, imagine her using them in games as a skyrocketing rising junior, the epitome of a fundamental player.
Let me offer some hoop science to describe her, some of my talent evaluators terminology: Faith has economy of movement, she hits her spots, makes eye contact well with her Balboa Hills AAU team guards. She hits teammates with a single quick glance, saying with her eyes, “I’m getting to that right block post right now, hit me please! All in one look. That’s dope!
I’ll let FB speak on her most memorable prep game that inspired her to believe anything is possible, “I’ll never forget our Burroughs prep game vs Crescenta Valley my freshman year.
“We were down by 32 at half-time. But our great coach Victoria Oganyan, she challenges us constantly. If she raises her voice to us, it’s only because she wants us to raise our game. She commands us to look inside ourselves, to push ourselves, improve from mistakes.
“And we did. We came back and won that game, for our school, for our pride because we just realized we could come together and win together!”
Why does Faith lead by example? To be that role model for her lil sister, 10 year old Rubi Mae.
Faith has crazy amounts of responsibility as a teenager. She tells me she really regrets not attending as many of her little sister’s games as she wished she had time for, regardless of her academic load, practice sched, her AP Literature class, and volunteering to help members of the deaf community.
Faith will always bring her A game, showing her lil sis what a fantastic effort means. I feel lucky to have seen her play multiple games lately. She has always kept that promise to herself, to “bring it” for her lil sister, to never leave anything behind when stepping between those 4 lines.
What does that look like in a b-ball game? Performance wise, Faith uses her extremely strong frame to set up her offensive moves. I predict she has a chance to possibly earn the prestigious Wooden Award in her junior or senior year maybe.
She that good E-Woods? Yup, this girl is on a mission. I’ll let her relate her goals to improve, “College coaches think I might best fit in the small forward 3 spot so I’ve been helping to run the point for our prep team.
“I’m just trying to get my passes more and more crisp. I’m always trying to improve my handle, those are the areas I’m focusing on most, there’s so much I have to perfect. I just work and work on it all. Being exhausted is a part of a teenager’s life, all worth it to get ready for the next level of hoop in a D1 program.”
Long ago Faith fell in love with basketball. Although she didn’t put a poster of #32 Blake Griffin on her wall, she watched him on TV, recorded and rewatched his games so often she could press “play” in her head and play his games in her mind’s eye.
She watched Lob City and decided she’d take #32 as her own jersey number, not to just wear the number but to live the number on her chest and believe in her heart #32 was the best way to roll.
She’d try to adopt Blake’s best moves to take seriously. What age? By freaking age 8 people. Who does that? That same girl who by age 12 would give up softball, because basketball was that serious to her.
Faith is also a serious student. She doesn’t have just a 3.2 gpa, she seeks to maintain a better gpa than the #32. No, she has a 3.3 overall GPA and wants to study Kinesiology, be a NBA trainer, stay close to the game after college. How dope is that?
What style of play does FB want to pursue in college? I’ll let her share, “I really appreciate how Pepperdine’s women basketball operates, their pace and system is great. I also really like CSUN’s program, I love being at the campus in Northridge. Their coach Jason Flowers, I really respect the way he coaches because he goes hard to get the most out of his players.
“I’ve met coach Flowers a couple times and I’m a big fan of CSUN in general because that’s the college where my parents met. It will always be special to me, no matter where I eventually play college ball.”
I found that Faith and I, your humble Californiapreps writer, E-Woods, we both love helping people who are deaf. CSUN has a world-class program to service and support those who have hearing issues. They take so much pride in helping people in the Deaf Studies program.
I told Faith my story of trying to help a kid back in the day, how I was proud to help Mike Lizarraga from Fremont, California in early 2004 to connect him and his parents to CSUN’s hoop coaches.
For Mike to get a D1 scholly was historic. He was only the 2nd fully deaf baller to ever play hoop in college. Dude actually went on to play pro ball in Mexico after college.
How dope is Faith? I can easily see her doing all kinds of supportive things like that. She’s all into the deaf community and you can tell helping comes easy to this sweet-natured girl. She is a mature, fun loving person, respectful to the power of 3.
Who else deserves a lot of credit for getting this great kid on point in many ways besides hoop? Her awesome mom Gina.
I’ll let FB share what her mom, and whole family, represent to her, “Oh my! My mom is that person I go to after games when I’m upset. She understands me as a woman best, but every single member of our house has something special that adds to everyone else in the house.
“Without my family, how could I have ever learned to care about animals? How could I have learned to care about people? My dad, ever since 1st grade, he pushed me in basketball. He’s been my #1 supporter in hoops, I am where I am because of my dad Tom.”
What does FB do for fun besides ball? She’ll fire up some Law and Order SVU on TV, or maybe you can find her hanging with her best bud from Burroughs, Stephanie Wilson.
Stephanie’s that special friend who she shares the little things with.
How many of us have had that buddy, the inside jokes, goofy smiles that only a “best-ie” could relate to? These girls might listen to Shoreline Mafia, or Blue Face, just bopping their heads to the beat.
I couldn’t get Faith to tell me any of the lyrics from those rappers. She told me they use “So so many curse words, I’m not repeating those words out loud.”
How much does E-Woods care to help you understand Faith’s music? I tried to research all the songs from Blue Face and Shoreline Mafia for an hour and I couldn’t find a single sentence, even a couple vowels, when separated from each other didn’t constitute a curse word.
I’m just playing people, Faith and her music are dope to the power of 3!
What touches me about Faith? She told me lyrics from the movie Moana, the song Where You Are which she says reps her spirit in a way. Here they are:
“You are your father's daughter
Stubbornness and pride
Mind what he says but remember
You may hear a voice inside
And if the voice starts to whisper
To follow the farthest star
Moana, that voice inside is who you are”
#Faith is crazy cool
Do me a favor, hear some of Faith’s fav music, go see Faith play, bop your head to the music. Just love the beat, see the rhythm in Faith’s game. Not many players can play like her, she’s “beastin” around LA, offering a free Blake Griffin Show impression to the public.
How to recognize her? Just look for a red and white bowling ball, saying “Indians” with a #32 spinning round and round the ball, gliding down the hardwood, avoiding the gutter lanes, hitting strike after strike at the rim.
Faith’s prep competition? Playing the part of propped up bowling pins, exerting their best physics to thwart her attack, yet falling down on the job. Faith, she’s the one standing 6-1 tall and proud, taller than a boy 6-8 would, to the power of 3.
