SARATOGA, CA -- After a 2024-25 season where the Vikings reached the California State Elite Eight for the fourth-straight season, West Valley returns a nucleus of proven sophomores and a talented freshman class in what head coach Danny Yoshikawa calls "the deepest team" he's had at West Valley since 2006. That team that went 33-4, played for the state championship, and had eight players earn Division 1 scholarships.
 
West Valley is two years removed from its undefeated state championship run of 2023 and, with key players like forward Caleb Asante and guard CJ Willenborg, have a chance to be special on both ends of the floor.
 
"I'm excited about this team," said Yoshikawa. "We're pretty young, but we've got a really great little nucleus of sophomores that kind of stabilize everything through their leadership. It's exciting, I think it can be a really good team."
 
Last season, Asante set a Viking record by hitting 63.9% of his field goals, also shooting 38.9% from deep and 78.2% at the free throw line. His efficiency also resulted in high-level production, as he finished third on the Vikings in scoring with 11.1 points per game behind Willenborg (11.6) and Jake Davis (14.9), now at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in the Big West Conference.
 
"He's Mr. Solid," said Yoshikawa, "and probably our best player. He just doesn't ever beat himself. He is an elite defender, he can really score, and the thing about Caleb is he can really, really pass. That's what makes him so good. If you double team him he knows how to find the open player."
 
Asante and fellow sophomore Aaron Biebel anchor a defense that allowed just over 60 points per contest last year. Biebel was named the 2024-25 Coast-South Defensive Player of the Year as a freshman.
 
"With him and Caleb," Yoshikawa said, "you have two guys that can virtually stop any two guys on a given night, they're just so good defensively."
 
Willenborg, a Sacramento native, might be the teams' X-factor. A well-rounded combo guard with terrific touch around the basket and a killer three-point shot, his greatest skills might be intangible.
 
"His feel for the game, his intelligence, it might be the highest level of basketball-IQ that I've ever coached at West Valley," said Yoshikawa. "In the past, he didn't use his IQ enough. It's like the game is too easy for him at times to make the great pass. He's starting to understand that his passing is how he separates himself from the rest of the state's best guards. He has an incredible feel for the game. He's a super-skilled player, and he's cerebral- that's what makes him so deadly."
 
His facilitating was strong last season as he finished with three or more assists 21 separate times.
 
Yoshikawa also mentioned sophomores Ryan Roth and Bryce Buchanan as players ready to take a big leap in their second year with the program. Shasta-transfer William Amoah averaged over 15 points per game and might be the Vikings' "most talented player" as the student-athlete, "along with Bryce (Buchanan)", who has "probably improved more than anybody else in our program since the summer," according to Yoshikawa.
 
The aforementioned IQ of Willenborg, and leadership of Ryan Roth, is something that could run through the team. Freshmen Antonio Kellogg, who averaged over 20 points per game in his senior year at Ygnacio Valley High School and Cyrus Hassan, a wizard with the ball who neared five assists per game last year at Polaris Prep, will handle the load at the point guard position.
 
"[The sophomores'] leadership and their support and their ability to teach the other guys what to do in other situations and to support those guys is at a really high level," said Yoshikawa of the snowball effect of having solid proven sophomores who understand the system. "It's kind of been that way in our program for a few years now, and that's where I'm excited. They're all good players, they're all all-conference-type guys in the future."
 
The Vikings open their season against Compton College which made the Southern California regional last year in its own right. They then go down south for a pair of games against Fullerton College and San Diego City College. Both programs are perennial state contenders.
 
"Compton is extremely talented, they've got two Division 1 kickback guys, one that's already signed early," said Yoshikawa. "You have to go down south and you have to play Fullerton on their home court and they're one of the best programs in the state. I've got a lot of respect for their coach and how they do things. The same thing, you turn around the next day and play San Diego City. Those three are incredible. That's going to be a tough two weekends of opening. I don't really feel like there's any cupcakes on our schedule. I feel like our strength of schedule should be really high. But definitely when you talk about playing guys that are always in the Elite 8 —and that's the Fullerton, San Diego City, City College of San Francisco twice -- when you talk about playing those guys, it's going to be very challenging. It just doesn't stop. We've got some good ones coming up."

"As the head coach, when your number one goal is development and not just winning games," said Yoshikawa, "the winning part is a byproduct. It's a byproduct of how hard we work every day, but that's the good part about West Valley. We're trying to play really good teams so that we can continue to develop as players."
 
The Vikings' length should be impactful on both sides of the ball. While they might not have former all-state centers 6-foot-11-inch Shakir Odenewu or a 6-foot-9-inch Adam Afifi, Amoah stands 6-feet-8-inches and grabbed double-digit rebounds nine times last year, Buchanan is 6-feet-9 inches, and Asante with his 6-foot-10 wingspan helps as well.
 
"We're always trying to play with size," said Yoshikawa. "[Freshman guard] Isaiah Ackerman adds some length at the guard position and I think he's a future 1^st-team all-conference player if all goes to plan. Same thing with [freshman forward] David Manea. David's kind of a guard-forward. I think that's where we're just a little bit bigger, because we have some guard-forwards this year that are pretty big. 6-feet-7 Forward Alonzo Hoff will be a key freshman as well. He's quicker off the ground than anyone on our team. I think we're long and pretty athletic and certainly that's going to help us win some games."
 
Yoshikawa started with describing an 11-man rotation before stopping himself and acknowledging that the team can go 14-deep in its rotation, calling it "top to bottom, a good team."
 
Opening with Compton this Friday, the Vikings have 13 home games. It's a home court advantage that saw the Vikings only lose once last season, one that should be a huge factor again.
 
While Yoshikawa and his team are always focused on the belief of taking home a state championship, he continues to emphasize the development of each individual player, noting how important that is for developing the team as a whole.
 
"Our goal is always to reach our potential. The winning and the scholarships are a derivative of work ethic and being coachable, and they take care of themselves."
 
West Valley plays 15 non-conference games before opening its Coast-Conference schedule with Foothill College on January 7th, 2026.