This week the Lamorinda Weekly had a story featuring 6'5" Kellen Ito, son of Rick Ito, president of the East Bay Rising Suns. Kellen, a junior, is Campolindo's starting center and seemed to come out of nowhere, since this is his first year playing high school ball. In fact, he's been playing Asian ball all along. The article goes on to discuss the Asian basketball scene.

Asian leagues have been around for decades, some as early as the 1930s, says Rick Ito. They're leagues known for grade-based play even through high school, and a focus on fundamentals. Many comprise teams that compete among local Asian churches, though there are also all-star travel leagues and tournaments.

One goal of Asian leagues, says Rick Ito, is to help prepare Asian players for high school ball, noting that he believes that 95% of the Asian players on current varsity teams played in the Asian leagues at some point. It's a statistic hard to verify but there's an impressive list of names and schools on www.risingsuns.net.

Teaching basketball fundamentals, says Ito, is only one of the reasons Asian leagues exist.

"The real focus is building cultural community, having fun together," says Rick Ito.

A couple of weeks ago, the Lamorinda Weekly also had a story about the Joaquin Moraga 7th grade girls team winning their league tournament. Two Ohtani C-2 girls, Dana Wong and Megan Adachi, were the driving force behind the championship win.