Extremely Competitive and All-Consuming

A Peek into the High School Hoops Scene in LA

Colin Pfaff is entering his fifth season as head boys basketball coach at  Windward High School, a private school of about 500 students in Los Angeles.  “Windward does a great job balancing athletics and academics,” Coach Pfaff says.  “It’s certainly a community, and focused on relational leadership.”

Since taking over, Coach Pfaff has led the Windward to a 93-33 record. The Wildcats went 28-8 this past season. “We had a great year,” Coach said, referring to this 2019-20 season.. “28 wins; set multiple school records.” While Windward finished the season ranked as the 27th best team in the nation, there were five teams ranked higher than them in LA alone.

Coach Pfaff describes the LA hoops scene as “extremely competitive. It’s all consuming. There are events every weekend of the year, for every level it seems like. The depth of talent is unreal. It seems as if every team you play has at least one college prospect on the team.Quite a few teams have multiple college prospects. There is a ton of opportunity for our players to get exposure, but the main thing is not to get caught up in the hype. We’ve got to make sure we stay focused and continue to get better.”

While he has enjoyed success the past couple seasons, the next couple seasons offer even greater anticipation for Pfaff.  They stand to return all 5 starters, with two juniors leading the way.  Both Dylan Andrews and Kijani Wright are Top 100 ranked players, who both hold offers from USC and UCLA.

Coach was a bit understated when describing next year’s team.  “Should be a solid group,” he described.  Sure it will.  

And so will many other teams in LA.