Port City soars through AAU summer

Posted Jul. 26, 2016

From meeting NBA royalty, to winning tournaments and traveling throughout the West Coast, the summer of 2016 has been a remarkable one for the Port City Amateur Athletic Union basketball program.

Port City, founded by current Bear Creek girls coach Anthony Matthews, has blossomed quickly in three years of existence and boasts highly successful 17-and-under boys and girls teams. Matthews heads the girls side, and Elliot Christian boys coach Jason Hitt handles one of the two boys teams.

Five of Hitt’s nine players are from Elliot Christian, a team which – like the summertime AAU bunch – can shoot from long distance with precision.

“The more you win in these events” the more college exposure the players get, said Hitt, entering his third season as Elliot Christian coach. “You can’t get seen by these college coaches if you can’t go to these certified events.”

Port City focuses on those events, which are teeming with recruiters seeking unheralded talent.

Port City has grown from four teams at its start to 20, with 15 youth and five high school-aged squads.

Matthews, who had prior AAU experience with the Stockton Mavericks, said a large reason for Port City’s genesis is upping the reputation and exposure of boys basketball in the area.

“The girls scene is pretty strong around here. A lot of kids have been able to move on to the next level,” said Matthews, a Stagg High alumnus. “Most people in this area think football and baseball are (boys’) only outlets to play college sports, and basketball kind of gets slept on.”

The Port City boys went 3-0 in San Francisco at the Gerry Frietas NCAA event, 3-2 at the Double Pump “best of summer” tournament near Los Angeles and 3-1 at the Big Foot Nike NCAA event in Las Vegas. While at the “best of summer,” Port City beat Chino Hills AAU, which includes multiple members of the CIF State Open Division champion Chino Hills High team.

“That was something we didn’t expect going into the tournament,” said Port City guard Jimmy Beltz, a Record All-Area honorable mention pick. “There were a bunch of college coaches there, so that was great.”

Hitt’s players – Beltz, Jalen Valverde, Oscar Sidhu, Nathan Bond and Spencer Sani (Elliot), Tre Simmons (Brookside Christian), Gyse Hulsebosch (East Union), Cameron Pieters (Stockton Christian), Dillon Autrey (Calaveras) and John Berna (Bear Creek) – have a high familiarity with one another.

That and the program’s structural stability, Hitt said, has led to winning. Right from the start, he and Matthews tried to avoid the AAU culture of players jumping to-and-fro.

“I told our guys, ‘Hey, if we’re going to do this, I want you with us’” consistently, Hitt said. “I know a bunch of college coaches have been contacting the kids because of the exposure.”

The Port City 17U girls have an eclectic mix of area talent, including Brookside Christian’s Shaylene Stark, St. Mary’s Taylor Thomas, Lodi’s Monica Valenzuela and Aubrey Andrews, Bear Creek’s Deyliana Lewis, East Union’s Ruby Daube and Donja Payne and Franklin’s Jelani Wiliford. Brentwood-Liberty’s Kai Bohannon rounds out the roster.

Daube, a third-team Record All-Area forward last season, believes Matthews’ relentless-but-fair coaching style works wonders.

“He’s hard. He expects the best from you,” said Daube, an incoming senior. “He helped build the program just by being a good coach.”

Daube and company went 30-5 this summer, taking first place in the Nike Cal Storm Summer Showdown, Nike Cal Swish Summer Classic and the Las Vegas Classic.

The Port City girls got to meet Klay Thompson, a Golden State Warriors guard and NBA all-star, during a practice in Garden Grove.

And the Port City boys met NBA hall of famers Gary Payton and David Robinson, along with longtime NBA guard Steve Smith, during the men’s national team’s exhibition against Argentina in Las Vegas.

“That was unbelievable,” Hitt said.