Notre Dame High of Sherman Oaks in the San Fernando Valley is a place where academics are stressed to the point that most of the students will be admitted into a good college after high school.

Impressive. And Notre Dame High students have committed themselves to 42,625 hours of service helping others in the community.

They won the uber Mission League last year, but attending Notre Dame is more than just basketball to the players. They’re real to the game of life and try to be all around persons at this community based school.

Me? Your humble writer felt these qualities ooze out when I got to know the players and coaching staff of Notre Dame High. 73% of its students graduate with with honors. 21 million dollars in academic and athletic scholarships are awarded to toward higher education among its small campus of students.

That’s ultra impressive to be a part of when you’re playing hoop there. The campus is alive with future world changers like at other campuses I know well, Harvard Westlake and Campbell Hall.

Why did I seek out and put a quote in this article (scroll below) from each Notre Dame basketball player, equipment manager, assistant coach I could find? I almost never do this in any of my 700 features in my 20 years of the writing game.

You might be asking, “You endorsing Notre Dame High E-Woods?” No, not exactly an endorsement of ND, it’s more specific than that. More later.

It’s my huge honor to be a blessing in Mercy Miller’s life, and he in mine. His father Percy Miller has really taught me a lot lately and over the years: that we live in the Lord’s grace and God is good.

That phrase is in my head always now. Caleb Foster’s game also plays in my head constantly, as does Dusty Stromer’s game. The heart and rhythm of Notre Dame has gotten in my heart no doubt.

They deserve a big story. Their fans and coaches too. This story is also a precursor to my doing a story on vaunted Harvard Westlake and its head coach Dave Rebibo. Wow, what Dave and his staff do blows my socks off, everyone’s socks off to be honest!

Here is a story on Johnny Juzang of Harvard Westlake, UCLA, and Utah Jazz. I got close to his pops Maxie. Dave has so many players to know about now. In addition, Robert Icart of BTI AAU has great young players to know about that play for HW as well.

https://californiapreps.rivals.com/news/johnny-silk-juzang-humble-swag

I’m qualified to speak on what makes a place the best of best of all times in terms of basketball powerhouses. How many lives have I touched? Humbly speaking, I’ve given my life to education as a Kinder-6th teacher for 24 years.

I have unlimited energy compared to most. Besides being a boys prep Rivals.com writer and SLAM freelance writer, I know the girls side as well. I have prep and evaluator skills at the college level 20 years.

So let me say if you take anything away from this story, know that these Notre Dame kids are really good kids on a mission to do their best as much as possible.

Should a player be up for national POY in Caleb Foster from North Carolina who was at vaunted Oak Hill Academy? He is so talented and fun to watch. My guy Tobias Bass of the Athletic told me, “There is so much goodness about the Foster family.”

I just want the world to know all good things that the Foster family bring into the Notre Dame program. Caleb Foster told me he decided to transfer to Notre Dame coach Matt Sargeant's program for all the same reasons I have loved ND for years: a place that cares for kids like their own.

It’s community orientated, competitive, and they build pros like Ziaire Williams of the Memphis Grizzlies who attended Stanford after graduating ND High.

Coach Matt is like a young version of legendary prep coach Steve Smith of uber Oak Hill Academy. I can attest to that personally, since S-Smith let me do his Oak Hill Academy story a few years ago. Steve is very selective in who he lets write about Oak Hill.

https://californiapreps.rivals.com/news/oak-hill-academy-relationships-fraternity-family

Smith had 1,232 wins when he retired. Matt of ND is cut from the same cloth, along with Dave Rebibo the head coach at Harvard Westlake. They have so much respect for each other’s programs. I can easily tell how both men feel pride in their friendship and in how they each run their respective programs.

Percy Miller and his son Mercy, and Caleb Foster and his family choosing Notre Dame High to combine with a powerhouse Dusty Stromer and emerging Jayden Harper has given legs to the possibility that an Open Division state title chase is possible.

Notre Dame has a good rep as a neighborhood community. It emphasizes good academics, morals, brotherhood, no shortcuts. It represents what is good in society, not just in high school basketball.

I have seen a couple of their games, much if their stuff on video and attended a practice in person where I was warmly welcomed and where I gave my own motivational speech. Coach Matt likes to keep things positive with pep talks that include phrases like “Each day you are your own masterpiece. Reflect on gratitude and what you’ve done for others.”

His is a powerful ethos of giving to others. It’s not just about the X’s and O’s. He connects with the players, the staff and everyone on a deep level with his charm and ability to have them hold themselves accountable to themselves.

Coach Matt knows that it’s easy to say and harder to do to treat each kid special like they are your own family, like they are worth caring about and putting a lot into personally each day. Yeah it’s like that, yeah Matt is like that. The key in life is relationships really.

That’s why when famed guards like Brandon Jennings asked my advice about going to Oak Hill from the west coast, I told him, “Jump to to your destiny B.”

I see similarities between B-Jennings talent wise, poise wise to Caleb Foster who both attended Oak Hill. When you look in Caleb’s eyes you see he has this great support system. It’s the same with Mercy Miller. They both go at it with no days off, get after it hard with daily pro trainers here in LA.

I see 6-5 Caleb Foster, as do others, as capable of running the Duke men's basketball program as a true freshman next year. He’s that good, and has that much leadership potential.

This is what Caleb had to say about ND, “We are a close team, we hang out. We all have to put in the work and find chemistry to make it work. Everyone has to accept his role, and we’re getting there. We’re finding that ideal groove and we’re discovering our true potential.

“I’ve enjoyed training with Cori Smith vs. pros of JusHoop Training. Just hanging with Mercy and working toward my ultimate goals in basketball and life is what I’m focused on right now.”

#powerful words

Dusty Stromer, he trained with my guy the ultra intelligent and spiritual AJ Moye. Dusty has been this super talented player at ND the last 3 years. A 6-6 forward who has a lot of hoop talent and natural personal charisma.

Just a lot of forward energy to drive the Notre Dame offense that helps get his teammates and crowd all kind of involved. His death-defying dunks have him breaking free from gravity with his feet when you least expect it no doubt! Ka pow!

Dusty is committed to Gonzaga and had this to say about ND, “I bonded with Coach Matt the man, not just him the coach a long time ago. You just want to have a bond with him, you come to respect him that much.

“You want to earn his respect as well. At ND I really loved playing with Ben Shtolzberg who is playing at Creighton University now. It’s been a great time here and I great recommend it to others.”

I did a whole story on Notre Dame’s amazing Mercy Miller:

https://californiapreps.rivals.com/news/notre-dame-s-mercy-miller-he-s-about-that-life

What Mercy had to say about ND was, “I appreciate the academics at Notre Dame and the community orientated nature of the school as well. The brotherhood of my teammates is important here. I will always value Coach Matt. He worked hard to make us all better people. There’s a lot of good things about ND across the board that I will remember.”

Back to Coach Matt. He gets all his players and staff to buy in and to see a vision of what could be. Coach Matt likes to say, “Winning an open division state title might be the hardest thing in prep boys basketball.”

I took the time to talk to each and every one that was there the day I visited. This program has a lot of of moving pieces flowing. Will it win an Open Division title? I put Notre Dame High in the top end of the list of 4.

I’m going to do a follow up on another another open division powerhouse school. I have at least 2-3 kids that are great players that are soph and juniors that are from the open division teams. So look for content in the upcoming weeks. A story a week or 2.

I told Coach Matt I’d give a quick 2 minute pep talk because I love these awesome ND kids so much. I brought out my cold steel ring, a legal ring I bought at a fashion store. Lol. It’s a different ring, and I’m a different dude no doubt.

I shared it with the kids at Notre Dame, my legal Brass Knuckles. I call it my “Mamba Mentality Ring.” I once brought these brass knuckles to La Jolla Country Day when I did their story a couple years ago as they battled to be #1 in the country.

I even gave them my impassioned motivational speech to hype them and give them confidence. Some of the girls put the brass knuckles on and flexed their muscles. It gave them a feeling of empowerment, but not violence, feel me?

The La Jolla prep girls told me, “Thanks again Erik for treating us tough, not like frail girls. We’re tough, we’re going to win a National Chip. So I traveled down personally to the famed LA Jolla Country Day of San Diego coached by my friend the legendary Terri Bamford.

Future WNBA Draft Lottery pick Oregon player Te-hina Paopao and Breya Cunningham were competing for a national title like Notre Dame High is competing for open division state title. I didn’t just write about girls and treat them like girls. I treated them like grown tough men, which they appreciated.

Let me give you an example.

I told the whole LJCD team with my eyes lit up of what it takes to kill it in battle as a warrior and respectfully slay an enemy on the hardwood.

“You need to have your brass knuckles come out. Bring it out, the Mamba Brass ring from your heart and play with it and leave nothing on the court each and every game, as all eyes are on you. Everyone is looking to take you out in a fair or unfair manner from here on to the rest of the season sisters.”

They got it.

I could see it in their eyes. Eyes are the gateways into peering into other ones true soul and destiny no doubt.

Me a Pre K to 6th grade teacher for so many decades, I’ve seen kids want be the 1st kid in their family to be well educated. I know well some immigrant families. Often the disadvantaged family just wants to be the 1st in the fam to make it to college. That’s me actually.

I see in their eyes the hunger that ND kids have, what we call ganas in Spanish, when your belly is empty. Notre Dame players will only be full when they have the precious around their fingers. They are chasing the precious like from the Lord of the Rings. It draws you to give all that you have, all your very being is emptied to fulfill a goal to achieve a goal that is mighty indeed.

I’ve been a hoops writer for 24 years. How many eyes you think I’ve looked into? I’ve seen the fake, I know the real. I can unlock a brain in convo if a kid is asking me for advice. Me? I’m a dude that personality wise is built just like a Kevin Garnett. That intense fosho. It’s like that.

LJCD girls prep wanted it that bad a couple years ago and they won their title, they got it!

Now it’s Notre Dame boys that I see wanting it that bad. They could have burning flesh from being in the middle of a fire fight and I bet they would still be saying, “Let’s goooooo!” These guys and their coaches, everyone on the support staff, they forge on because their hearts are so pure.

What more can you say of a group of boys that yearn to become tested as men between those four lines of destiny on the basketball court?

This prep team? They are led by Mercy Miller, Caleb Foster, Dusty Stromer, and a bit by Jayden Harper all bringing out the cold hard steel when it’s go time! 100!

Your humble writer talks frequently with 2 dozen basketball insiders that are state of the art SoCal experts of experts.

They run top rated programs, recruitment services around the country, run pro programs, are prep and NBA and WNBA Pro trainers, long time elite AAU program directors that have asked to remain anonymous when giving me their opinions. I’m just not at liberty to disclose their names in my feature stories.

They tell me keep my name out of it E-Woods. Period. But it’s cool to share my thoughts with the others that contribute in our shared circle of insiders. Ok. I have to respect that.

So what does the consensus of this think tank say? I’m going do a full feature on their reflections in 3-4 more weeks in the future. We have been talking informally for quite a while.

Most see Harvard Westlake as the favorite. You’ll have to wait for their picks. All I can say is that behind the scene, Notre Dame played a national power top ten prep graduate team and won handily. And they just beat a strong Modesto Christian by almost 20 and took down national power Dematha from Maryland.

If people at Sierra Canyon are insulted by this? All I can say is you’re welcome for the motivation. I love for the smoke and motivation in my life. Personally, I’d use it as pin up locker stuff to power you. But how many behinds can a pen put in seats? Can I help grow the sport? I pride myself on trying to write like former all time sport hoop writing greats like Scoop Jackson. I keep up with Scoop a lot. Ryan Jones, he wrote that cool SLAM mag front cover story that seems more relevant now than ever. The Takeover.

Is that Notre Dame’s fate? We gonna find out in this year? Let’s fill some seats people on their journey, you know a more exciting team? I can’t find one. Anywhere.

There are other players at open division schools like Sierra Canyon that features my dear friend Isaiah Elohim. Love him so much. I pray for him, he prays for me. It’s deep, more than basketball and I’m excited to see his journey in more than just hoops. Zay Elohim is The Truth!

I love the energy at Sierra Canyon. quite a few like Izela, Mac Randolph, but they’re the girls side. I love the girls side no doubt.

Corona Centennial, I love freshman Justice Griffith, he’s that super freshman that nearly starts and has such a bright future. I love Devin Williams. Love his game and personality. Truly love as a friend J-Griffith and Devin’s trainer Brent Summers who trained Russ Westbrook, Shannon Sharpe and is an amazing assistant coach. I love theCorona Cent girl’s program also. 100.

I’m sad I never got to talk to head coach Josh Giles. You can only ask. People have to meet your energy, right?

I have always stayed away from doing ranking lists. I find them impersonal. I know my breakdown, I could start my own recruitment network, sell my info to colleges. Nah.

I’m a story teller, just like Scoop Jackson, a man who ate Fruity pebbles with LeBron as he did his story on him in high school. I’m looking for a pure of heart to the game player. Yeah LeBron level talent is cool, but humble is what I seek.

Me? E-Woods, I make my bread from teaching and can’t be bought or corrupted. I give my eval to recruitment networks and college coaches who know I have insights about prep kids.

Back to why I think Coach Matt could take his team to an open state chip, and I think Dave Rebibo leads in that area as well. And you can’t count out Corona Centennial.

Coach Matt was a great player in prep. He was a prep Orange County player before going on to play at Princeton.

It’s time to hear from some of the awesome ND players.

Jayden Harper transferred in from Alemany High. He went to Todd Wilson’s Core Prep Academy, that quintessential great junior high elite skill program that Skyy Clark and Johnny Juzang attended.

Jayden says of ND, “We work hard, we rebound. We just need to play together. It’s intense academics, but we are family here indeed.”

Another insightful comment came from ND coach Eric Walter, “We have a good positive environment. It’s about accountability when we say how we achieved our goals. I think it’s more about how can we do better. We have learned to show gratitude.”

A big part of the program, maybe you can say a passionate heart of it can be seen in Jurenne Belario, who is the Spiritual Advisor at ND. I asked her what the world needs to know about the team. She said, “I’d like our play to speak for itself.”

A great guy and assistant coach for Coach Matt is Brooks Proctor, who has been at a couple other programs. He knows what he’s doing. He says, “We went from being The Bad News Bears of the league to the top of the league. It’s just our time now. The last shall be the first eventually.”

#wise

Notre Dame player Tyler Sturgeon had this passion to share, “As an 11th grader I feel this place is family. We are all friends. We learn to be grateful each day. We trust in each other more and more each day, we’re more and more into each other by the day.”

A kid at ND that impressed me for a variety of reasons was Shaan Vanjani. He said this, “I transferred from Brentwood and have been a hooper all my life. This team is community, all about funding chemistry, and selfless pursuit of a shared goal.”

Another guy that impressed me for his role to bring this team up a notch was Sam Buckner. He’s in his 1st year with ND and feels the kids are well mannered and he appreciates that the players show gratitude.

Sam has worked with NBA’s Bam Adebayo and Harry Giles among other elite players in Florida. Good guy. He’s the ND development guy and said a key for ND was, “The kids just need to gel and accept a role.”

Sophomore Lino Mark had this to say about ND, “I just believe in Coach Matt. He helped me when I needed him a lot. It’s a welcoming school.”

Player Kye Davis said this about about ND, “I love going here to be around Coach Matt. I’m so appreciative to be around the good players here. I also work out with Shea Frazee. I have a better chance of making my dream college from being here.”

ND player Micah Tannenbaum loves hoop. He plays for AAU Cali Stars and Julius V. He says about ND, “This place is about the academics but it’s also about a culture of excellence. I came from Beverly Vista Middle School and hope to go to UCLA or Arizona to play there. This place gives me my best chance.”

Jacob Feller adds, “I wanted to be at an elite prep school. We hope to win a state title. We want to win all our tournaments. This place is about hard academics.”

Stefen Sherman says of the school and hoop program, “I came to play the 1 or 2 spot. We are a family here at ND. We push each other, we connect with each other in new ways each day. It’s intense. We all are making progress to our goals I feel. Mine is getting to Stanford.”

Another player with a good attitude was Mark Lewis, who had this to say, “This is a winning fun team to be on. We have a good culture and can shoot. We’re talented. We believe. We just need chemistry as a team.”

Luke Nelson is a player with a great comment, “I contribute off the ball with screens. We compete each practice, we get buckets, we get stops. We are stacked. This is our year and we really have to connect to each other.”

Dante Ogbu had cool things to say about ND, “What I love about ND is its basketball. But it teaches more than the game, it helps you reflect and challenges you to have an expectation for yourself. The expectation I have learned from being on the team is that life is challenging.”

#ND basketball is wisdom

Camron Jackson also had good things to say, “My teammates are unity. This factor is displayed daily both on and off the court.”

Omari Garrett loves ND and had this to say, “I really love Notre Dame basketball because we all are very goal orientated. I love getting in the gym.”

Brody Frankovich also showed his passion for ND basketball, “Know where you are always. And where you are needed to be. I’m just getting better and better at things here at ND. I have this place to thank.”

This is the schedule for Notre Dame Boys Basketball. I can’t stress enough for you to see them play. Don’t miss out people. See a Mission League game this week.

https://www.maxpreps.com/ca/sherman-oaks/notre-dame-so-knights/basketball/schedule/

Now you know I’m excited to share more with you readers in this journey. Me, 51 year old E-Woods is catching a 2nd wind.

I used to shot block James Ennis and Jaime Jaquez at our local 24 Hr Fitness a couple years ago. But Covid, couple med problems and I’m not playing as much hoop.

Now it’s writing game time. As my friend says. “God is good.”

Go out and see some of the teams I recommend, you won’t be disappointed. 100.