La Mirada High School’s gym has a capacity of 710. It will be the site for the San Juan Hills-La Mirada boys basketball CIF-SS Division 2A championship game Friday night.
From 1994 through 2019, the 2A boys basketball championship game was usually among the finals held at a large venue, such as the Honda Center.
CIF-SS assistant commissioner Thom Simmons, the section spokesman, said with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health limiting indoor high school events to 1,000 spectators due to the pandemic, a gym limited to 710 is not an issue.
Simmons added that CIF-SS data supports that.
“The beauty of GoFan.com,” said Simmons referring to the CIF-SS online advance ticket purchasing system, “is that we can monitor what demand is for our events.”
San Juan Hills athletic director Robert Frith said his school has discussed asking the CIF-SS office to take a look at what Frith anticipates could be high demand to attend the 2A final.
“Is this what’s best for both of our schools?” Frith said. “Are we going to limit this to 700 people to see a CIF finals basketball game?”
Because COVID-19 restrictions made advance scheduling uncertain, the CIF-SS office decided that host schools would be the sites for its boys and girls championship basketball games.
All of the CIF-SS boys and girls basketball finals will be at host school sites. A game can be moved to a different site if that is agreed upon by the participating schools and the CIF-SS approves the site change. That happens, but not often.
Simmons said schools with teams in the boys basketball finals met with CIF-SS assistant commissioner Rainer Wulf on Wednesday morning, and no school voiced concern about game sites.
All of the CIF-SS boys basketball finals will start at 7 p.m. Friday unless a change of starting time is agreed upon by both schools and the CIF-SS.
JSerra will be at home Friday when it plays St. Bernard in the Division 1 final. JSerra defeated St. John Bosco 60-44 in the Division 1 semifinals Tuesday. St. Bernard beat St. Anthony 66-64 in the other semifinal.
San Juan Hills defeated St. Paul 63-53 in the 2A semifinals Tuesday, while La Mirada got a 67-48 win over Edison in the other 2A semifinal. It will be the first CIF-SS boys basketball championship game for San Juan Hills.
Dana Hills beat Long Beach Millikan 61-56 in the 3A semifinals to advance to a CIF-SS boys basketball championship game for the first time. The Dolphins will make the drive Friday to Santa Barbara to play at Bishop Diego.
The 4AA final is an all-Orange County matchup between Garden Grove and Fullerton. Garden Grove, which defeated Sunny Hills 45-39 in the semifinals, is the home team. Fullerton defeated top-seeded Artesia 58-56 in the other semifinal.
Garden Grove will be playing in a CIF-SS boys basketball final for the first time since the school opened in 1921. Fullerton has played in five basketball championship games, but not since 1959.
Western is playing in a CIF-SS final for the first time. The Pioneers, who beat Edgewood 55-33 in the 4A semifinals, plays at Dos Pueblos of Goleta.
Tickets for CIF-SS boys basketball championship games will be available Thursday. Prices are $12 for adults and $5 for students and for children. Tickets will not be sold at the game sites.