The Sierra Canyon Trailblazers have been on the top of the mountain in California high school basketball since 2018. Head coach, Andre Chevalier, legacy precedes him from being one of California State University of Northridge all time players to being an assistant coach at the school, before coaching high school basketball.
Coach Chevalier first found success coaching when he led the Oaks Christian High School men’s team, located in Westlake, CA, to a CIF championship in 2011 during his first season.
He was then named Sierra Canyon High School’s new men’s basketball coach in 2017. That same year, the team and school won its first state championship and became the new king’s of the highly competitive California basketball scene. This team, loaded with underclassmen standouts such as: Scottie Pippen Jr., Kenyon Martin Jr. and Cassius Stanley, seized that opportunity and won again the following year, being the second team in CIF open division history to win the championship back to back with Mater Dei being the first in 2013-2014.
Top Class: The Life and Times of the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers is a show that features some of high school basketball’s biggest names to grace one single team together. The show is based around the 2019-2020 season and was led by BJ Boston ranked 7th on ESPN’s senior recruiting class, Ziaire Williams ranked 8th, Amari Bailey a sophomore guard ranked 3rd in his 2022 recruiting class. And none other than the two future hall of farmers sons, Zaire Wade, ranked 240th at the time of his senior year and Bronny James Jr, ranked 25th.
Being the number one team in California and the number two team in the nation made the target on their backs that much bigger.
Throughout the first episode, you get a feel for coach Chevalier, his coaching staff and the rest of the players on the team besides the names proceeding. Sierra Canyon is not just a private school known for their basketball program, but is one of the toughest academic schools in all of the nation, with a 100 percent graduation rate, and a 95 percent rate of their graduates being accepted into the most prestigious universities across the country.
This team wanted a shot at a national championship title and the only way to do so was to travel across the country and play the best schools in their home. Traveling to eight different states, this team logged in roughly about the same amount of flight miles as some collegiate/ professional basketball teams.
Episode two takes an interesting turn, and highlights Zaire Wade, showing amazing insight on not only his game, but his bubbly, excitingly affectionate personality. Although they showed him tearing some ligaments inside his ankle early on into the season, that never stopped his mindset of creating his own name and lane outside of his fathers shadow.
The rest of the series should be appealing as they dive deep into the teams season and the struggles of what it takes to be a champion on and off the court. You can watch Top Class: The Life and Times of the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers now on IMDB TV by following the link https://amzn.to/3kIYcKU.
