By MARTY JAMES martyjames.sports@gmail.com
Signal The Light Basketball named Cameron Joseph and Albert Dennis of the Napa Valley College men's team as Honorable Mention for Northern California, it was announced in a report on March 23 at stlball.com.
Signal The Light Basketball named a first team Northern California STLB Team, a second team Northern California STLB Team, NorCal Player of the Year, NorCal Coach of the Year, NorCal Freshman of the Year, All-Freshman First Team, All-Freshman Second Team, and Freshman Honorable Mention.
Joseph, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound sophomore forward from Fairfield, was selected first-team All-Bay Valley Conference following the 2022-23 season.
Dennis, a 6-foot-1, 160-pound sophomore guard from San Jacinto (Riverside County), was selected to the Bay Valley's All-Defensive Team.
The 2023 All-Bay Valley Conference team was announced by the California Community College Men's Basketball Coaches Association.
"Nobody covers community college basketball statewide like John Bynum at Signal The Light Basketball," Napa Valley head coach Steve Ball said on Tuesday. "He's a great advocate for our level and helps promote our guys to university levels. So, we're very grateful for everything that he does and we're honored and humbled that he would honor two of our guys by putting them on that list."
Joseph and Dennis each had big seasons for the Storm (7-21 overall, 2-14 Bay Valley).
Joseph averaged 15.1 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.8 steals per game. He shot 36.6 percent from the floor, 29.3 percent from 3-point range, and 77.9 percent at the free-throw line.
Dennis averaged 12.3 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2.5 steals per game. Dennis shot 50.8 percent from the field, 32.1 percent from 3-point distance, and 66.7 percent at the free-throw line.
Joseph and Dennis each started all 28 games for Napa Valley.
"Two great young men," said Ball. "They're both looking to transfer on. Cam's getting some Division II interests throughout the West Coast. And Albert's getting some interest as well from schools as far out as Arizona and all over California as well."
Joseph, Dennis and others in the sophomore class were honored by Napa Valley on "Sophomore Night," in the final home game of the year, on Feb. 10.
"Last year, we thought they were great role guys on a sophomore-heavy team. And then this year, they kind of took over in their leadership role and both really helped us. Al's a tremendous defender and Cam's a guy that can score it in a multitude of ways," said Ball.
"They're both very consistent. I believe, for a while there, any game that Al shot over 10 shots for us, we were winning. Both of them had to play out of position once (Doentae Jenkins) went down with his Achilles tear. And so, their numbers, shooting percentage-wise and shot attempt-wise, went down because there wasn't somebody creating, getting them the ball where they needed it."
Joseph averaged 30.0 minutes per game. Dennis averaged 29.8 minutes per game.
Joseph scored 20 or more points in eight games. He scored a season-high 31 points against College of Alameda on Jan. 7 and scored 27 points in a game against Merritt College-Oakland on Jan. 14.
Dennis scored 20 or more points in five games for NVC. He scored a season-high 30 points in a nonconference game against De Anza College-Cupertino on Nov. 5. He scored 27 points in a game on Dec. 17 against Ohlone College-Fremont.
Joseph, Dennis and Chris Thompson all played in the Sophomore Showcase, a series of games throughout the day, on March 10, at College of Sequoias, in Visalia. The Sophomore Showcase is put on by the California Community College Men's Basketball Coaches Association. The event was attended by coaches from four-year colleges.
Games from the Sophomore Showcase – which featured over 120 sophomore players from around the state of California – are going to be available on the CCCMBCA film exchange platform, Synergy. The CCCMBCA announced that this year's games will be recorded and uploaded to Synergy.
Javohn Garcia of College of the Sequoias-Visalia is the Signal The Light Basketball NorCal Player of the Year.
Jordan Lee of Ohlone-Fremont is the Signal The Light Basketball NorCal Coach of the Year.
Elijah Mahi of West Valley-Saratoga is the Signal The Light Basketball NorCal Freshman of the Year.
Ball said a lot of the returning players for NVC are in the gym and weight room, putting in work and preparing for next year's season.
Ball is hoping that Chris Farrington, a guard who is from Milwaukee, will be able to play for the Storm next year. He missed all of this past season due to injury. He had surgery to repair the fifth metatarsal bone in his foot.
"Hopefully, we'll finally get to see Chris Farrington on the floor. Hopefully, he's ready to go," said Ball.
* Marty James is a freelance writer who makes his home in Napa. He retired on June 4, 2019 after spending 40 years as a sports writer, sports editor and executive sports editor for the Napa Valley Register, a daily newspaper in Napa County. He is a 1979 graduate of Sacramento State and a member of the California Golf Writers & Broadcasters Association. He was inducted into the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame in 2016, the Vintage High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019, and the Napa High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022.