HIGH SCHOOL

Josh Green finds academic bliss at Mountain Ridge, basketball heaven at Hillcrest

Richard Obert
azcentral sports
Sophomore Josh Green lduring the Hillcrest Prep basketball practice at Precision High School in Phoenix on Wednesday, December 7, 2016.

Josh Green every once in awhile will pass Glendale Mountain Ridge basketball coach Eli Lopez on campus.

"We'll say hi," he said.

Green said he really hasn't talked to Lopez since the school year started. He has remained a student at the traditional public school. But he is now a sophomore guard getting scholarship offers from California, UNLV and TCU since joining Hillcrest Prep's national team, which is based out of Precision High in south Phoenix, not far from the airport.

Lopez did not return messages for this story.

It's a 45-minute jaunt that the 6-foot-4 Green takes with his brother, Jayden, a Mountain Ridge graduate in May, who is playing on Hillcrest's post-grad team.

Workouts usually begin after 4 p.m., so it gives him time to get over to Precision to join his teammates, including 7-foot senior center DeAndre Ayton, who is ranked in national recruiting services as the No. 1 high school player in the country for his class.

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"He's at a good school," said Delmas Green, Josh's dad, who played pro basketball in Australia and moved his family to Arizona two years ago. "Mountain Ridge is a great school, academic-wise. He was doing well there. He's got good friends there. Academically, he's doing well. The principal is great. He still has the best of both worlds, playing at this level at Hillcrest, and getting a top education. He's got the best of both worlds. It's hard to juggle at times, but it's working out."

Green brings homework and does assignments on the road to make sure he doesn't fall behind academically while playing a national schedule that goes deep into March. The rest of the players take online courses through Precision that Hillcrest director Matt Allen said are all NCAA accredited.

Senior  DeAndre Ayton during the Hillcrest Prep basketball practice at Precision High School in Phoenix on Wednesday, December 7, 2016.

Hillcrest in the summer stopped being part of the Starshine Academy, a downtown school that was housing the players and letting them use its tiny gym, which looked like a playhouse with Ayton inside of it.

Last year, when Hillcrest got its Nike sponsorship and was trying to emerge as the next Findlay Prep on the national scene, the NCAA looked into its academics and found that courses wouldn't be accepted for players to make them eligible.

It changed over to Arizona Connections Academy, an online school out of Gilbert.

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Now, the players are taking courses through Precision, which once was an Arizona Interscholastic Association high school that captured a small-schools boys basketball state championship in 2009, before breaking off from the AIA and joining the Canyon Athletic Association.

Hillcrest Prep (12-2), which recently played in the Bahamas, will be playing in Arizona for the first time this season this weekend at two events -- at the American Family Insurance Hoophall West at Scottsdale Chaparral as the late, late game Friday at 10 p.m. against Westbury Christian (Texas), then on Sunday at 3 against Prolific Prep of Northern California at Bella Vista College Prep in Scottsdale as part of newest Valley prep academy Aspire's Grind Session Duel in the Desert.

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Aspire will play Findlay Prep, a school that has yet to play Hillcrest, at 4:45 p.m. Sunday, the second of a triple-header. Trinity International out of Nevada plays The Tech (Canada) at 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

Green's 23 points recently in a loss to a stacked Prolific Prep team was impressive.

"It's a good chance to get back at them and try to get the win," Green said about Sunday's upcoming rematch.

Sophomore Josh Green lduring the Hillcrest Prep basketball practice at Precision High School in Phoenix on Wednesday, December 7, 2016.

Green is the only player for Hillcrest who has played in the AIA and is sticking with the traditional public school system for his education.

"It's been really good," Green said about playing for Hillcrest, which is a big draw because of Ayton. "We're getting national exposure, traveling around.

"It's good to play against the best guys in the country."

Because there are really no rules for prep academics, which recruit talent from all over the world, there is nothing that states Green can't still go to school at Mountain Ridge, while playing for Hillcrest, which is not under the AIA's jurisdiction.

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"That's the beauty of not being a part of the AIA and being part of a national team," Allen said. "We can go everywhere."

Last spring, Hillcrest met with AIA leaders, seeking a chance to play games against other high schools in the Valley without being part of the state tournament, the same way Findlay Prep does it in Nevada.

Findlay Prep doesn't take Nevada players to stay in good graces with the high school coaches. Its only real competition among the Nevada high school association is Las Vegas Bishop Gorman, which has grown into a monster of an athletics program, competing against the best in the country in football and basketball and other sports.

Hillcrest made that pitch to the AIA that it wouldn't take anybody from Arizona. But the AIA denied even an affiliated membership request. AIA Executive Director Harold Slemmer said at the time, "What they're doing goes against our mission for high school athletics."

"Virtually nobody in the association wants this," he added.

Sophomore Josh Green lduring the Hillcrest Prep basketball practice at Precision High School in Phoenix on Wednesday, December 7, 2016.

Green became the only former AIA player to join a team that will be part of the most prestigious boys basketball showcase in the country, the Hoophall Classic, in mid-January, when it gets a prime ESPN slot on a Saturday night with the billing "Ayton against Westtown School (Pa.) No. 4-rated Mohammed Bamba."

That's more sets of eyes on Green, who feels he has risen his game since he joined the team last summer.

"The first time I saw Josh was in the eighth grade," Allen said. "He's a complete player, offensively and defensively. He scored 23 points against arguably the best high school team in the country, Prolific Prep. For a sophomore, he's incredible."

Allen said that Ayton, who has signed to play at Arizona, has taken him under his wing.

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Hillcrest coach Kyle Weaver said Green has played "phenomenally" as a starting off guard and backup point guard.

"He's matured, really bought in, never quits," Weaver said. "He is playing against four-star teammates in practice. It's iron sharpening iron."

Last year, Green teamed up with his brother Jay to lead Mountain Ridge to a 19-8 record and into the Division I state tournament, where the season ended with a two-point loss to Phoenix St. Mary's. The Green brothers led the team in scoring. Last month, Jayden Green signed with UNLV.

Mountain Ridge has started this season 3-5, losing its last three.

Green said his best friends attend Mountain Ridge, and nobody has tried to make him feel like a deserter.

Senior  DeAndre Ayton during the Hillcrest Prep basketball practice at Precision High School in Phoenix on Wednesday, December 7, 2016.

"It's the same as it's always been," he said.

Delmas has no bad feelings toward Mountain Ridge's basketball program, but he felt having his son playing alongside Ayton, playing against some of the best talent in the country, made the move a no-brainer to improve his development on the court.

"It's a little bit of everything involved," Delmas said. "We couldn't be in a better school than Mountain Ridge. We wouldn't leave there for academic purposes. He's getting a top education there. They support what he's doing. He's got great friends that are there.

"When you’re playing with some of the better kids in the country and then you play against some of the better kids in the country, your game definitely has to improve."

To suggest human-interest story ideas and other news, reach Obert at richard.obert@arizonarepublic.com or 602-316-8827. Follow him at twitter.com/azc_obert.