San Juan Scene, August 2002:
"Sacramento Kings player Mike Bibby participated in Capitol City's Summar Basketball Camp at San Juan High School.

Bibby signed autographs for all the students and competed in a contest with them. He sent each of the winners a pair of Nike shoes as a prize.

Al Manfredi, Capitol City camp director and Rio Americano High School teacher, said they hope to have Mike Bibby participate in the camp every summer.

Prior to this year's event, Capitol City was called the Vinny Del Negro Summer Basketball Camp after the former Kings player who had been hosting it since its inception 12 years ago.

Manfredi said Del Negro - who comes to Sacramento every summer for the camp - helped Capitol City officials contact Bibby.

'Since he (Del Negro) did not play ball this year, he thought it would be best to ask a Kings player to participate in our camp this year,' he added.

Children in the five-day summer camp participated in daily contests and basketball instruction. There were different guest speakers for each day.

The summer camp is open to fourth through twelfth graders. Most of the participants were from the San Juan Unified School District. Others came as far as Auburn and Elk Grove.

San Juan High School was chosen as the venue for this year's camp after rio Americano became unavailable to host it this year due to modernization work. We had a lot of help from San Juan principal David Terwilliger and basket ball coach Erich Wohlenberg,' Manfredi said."
Shonda L. Tillman, San Juan Scene Staff....

Varsity Season Roundup:
Sacramento Bee: "San Juan not going to take it anymore.
The losses were one thing - an expected part of what the San Juan boys basketball team knew was a time for rebuilding.

But the abuse - the consistent and brutal pounding of their bodies every single game? They didn't see that coming. and they didn't like it much, either.

So the Spartans hit back.

Smallish San Juan may have saved its season last month, winning four of six in the Golden Empire League after losing its first three league games.
'Our league is big, and we're not, and our kids were taking some real bruising,' said Erich Wohlenberg, in his sixth season at San Juan. 'They finally got tired of getting their butts kicked. It was like a physical form of survival, and now they're dishing out as much as they take.'

Their pride took the biggest blow in a 33-point loss to Encina on Jan 9, when the Bulldogs' strut after their win left a bad taste in the Spartans' mouths.

'They swaggered a bit, and I think that challenged us,' Wohlenberg said. 'The guys realized you have to play hard to beat people.'

One attitude adjustment and effort-boost later, and San Juan was suddenly on a roll.

After downing Golden Sierra (67-57 on Jan 14), and coming within two missed free throws of beating frontrunner Capital Christian in a 65-63 loss two days later, San Juan's run came full circle with a 70-68 win over Encina on Jan 21. San Juan then defeated Golden Sierra and Lindhurst before suffering a heartbreaking 55-54 loss in overtime at Marysville on Friday.

The Spartans are doing it with defense, with assistant coach and athletic director Tom Henderson heading the unit. A former UC Davis player and assistant coach at UC Santa Barbara, Henderson has seen his relentless coaching pay off.
'We win with 'Defense,' and (Henderson) kicks the holy dookie out of the guys in practice,' Wohlenberg said. 'He's probably one of the best defensive coaches in the area.'
The defense has countered San Juan's lack of size. San Juan's biggest player is senior Erik McCall-Johnson, a 6-foot-4 post who weighs just 167 pounds. His fellow tall man is sophomore Flanders Feenstra, a 6-3, 159 pound forward.
Senior point guard Duane Hammonds has played well in his first season as a starter, and the scoring load has been carried by Eric Webster (18 points per game). Feenstra and guard B.J. Mooney have secured starting spots as sophomores.
Senior guard Josh McMurtry is an able scorer, posting 25 points against Capital Christian. Junior wing D'Anndre McLish has become a stopper on defense and finisher on offense.
'Last year was tremendous,' said Wohldnberg, who lost seven plays from the team that finished 25-6 and lost to Amador in the Division IV section semifinal last February. 'But there's different types of gratification. We didn't think we'd be very good, so for them to have this success is fun. I can see a lightness in their step. They're proud of themselves.'"

By Sam Amick, Bee Staff Writer
can be reached at samick@sacbee.com