Each week, publications from the Southern California News Group’s 11 properties (Orange County Register, L.A. Daily News, Press-Enterprise, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Long Beach Press-Telegram, The Daily Breeze, San Bernardino Sun, Daily Bulletin, Redlands Daily Facts, Whittier Daily News and Pasadena-Star News) select the Athletes of the Week for their respective region.
Each athlete is then entered into the overall Southern California Athlete of the Week vote.
Click on the newspaper links below the athlete’s name to read about their performance from last week, and then vote for who you think deserves the top honor.
Readers are allowed to vote multiple times. Voting ends at midnight, but final totals aren’t always immediately reflected due to processing.
GIRLS ATHLETE OF THE WEEK VOTING
The overall winner will be announced on Friday, January 13.
Voting poll at bottom of the page.
Justin Wells, Lakeside : Wells claimed the 138-pound title at last week’s Riverside County Championships. Lakeside had three individual champions at the meet and captured team title for the first time. Wells was one of three champions who registered a pin in all five matches. He was leading Felicito Nunez of Shadow Hills 7-0 before locking in a pin in the second period. Wells was a state qualifier in 2022 and is ranked No. 14 in the state at 138 pounds by The California Wrestler.
JV Brown, Rolling Hills Prep : Brown had one of the top performances in the Take Flight Challenge Saturday, scoring 23 points and grabbing 10 rebounds to lead Rolling Hills Prep to a 45-37 win over Washington Prep. Brown earned player of the game honors.
Rockwell Reynolds, Santa Margarita: He scored 33 points over two Trinity League wins by the Eagles over teams in the Orange County Top 10. The 6-8 forward scored 15 points in a 56-42 win over JSerra and scored 18 points with eight rebounds in a 65-53 win over Orange Lutheran. Santa Margarita (18-3, 2-0) is No. 2 inn the Orange County Top 25. Reynolds signed with Northern Arizona University.
Brady Dunlap, Harvard-Westlake: The Notre Dame-bound senior scored 38 points in Harvard-Westlake’s 74-66 triple-overtime win over previously unbeaten Bishop Montgomery in the Take Flight Challenge Saturday night. Both teams are expected to earn berths to the CIF Southern Section Open Division playoffs in February. The win Saturday could give Harvard-Westlake a higher seed .
Tyrone Riley, St. Pius X-St. Matthias : The 6-foot-6 guard averaged 28 points per game last week and led St. Pius X-St. Matthias to wins against Salesian and Oak Park. The junior scored 32 points in a 72-58 win against Camino Real League rival Salesian. He followed that with 24 points and eight rebounds in a 65-62 win over Oak Park in double overtime. The four-star recruit has more than a dozen Division I college basketball scholarship offers, including ones from Arizona State, Cal, TCU, Texas A&M, USC and Washington State.
Russell Williams, South Pasadena : The junior guard led the way in the team’s Rio Hondo League opener. He scored a game-high 26 points to go with six rebounds in a 70-66 victory over Monrovia. Williams also had 24 points and five rebounds in a loss to Eagle Rock. The Tigers (11-3) are ranked No. 3 in CIF-SS Division 3AA. “(Williams) will definitely be one of the reasons we’re pushing to be in the top three (in league),” South Pasadena coach Ernest Baskerville said.
