South High Spartan Basketball: The Jim Owens Award

"The Jim Owens Achievement Award"

The Spartans had just come off one of the most exciting years in school history finishing with a 20-7 record in 1991-92, but the Class of 1992-93 built on top of that season by capping an incredible 28-4 season. Finishing the year as the #2 ranked team in Division 3AA Basketball, CIF 3AA Finalist, State Regional Div. III Finalist and ranked #5 in the State & undefeated Pioneer League Champs! Needless to say, our season was filled with much deserved recognition and awards to members of the team and the program.

Wanting to make the Banquet a special one, we did our homework and found that in 1969, a former South High Spartan, by the name of Jim "The Big O" Owens was the only alumni to ever make such an impact in South High history by averaging about 27 points a games, shooting from three point range.  It earned him a Scholarship to Arizona State. After a successful career at Arizona, Jim Owens was drafted by the Phoenix Suns in 1973. He spent two years with the Suns before ending his NBA career.

Jim was a 3.5 student in school, he was an All League, All Area & All CIF player. In our eyes, Jim Exemplifies the idea athlete that excels on the court and in the classroom. At the banquet, Jim Owens attended and presented the Award to our first recipient. His head coach also attended. Jim Owens now resides in Whittier. And so, this award is given to an Athlete that fits the following criteria:

-An Athlete who sets high goals & upholds the Coaches standards & ideas to the best of his ability.

-An Athlete that strives to be the ebst he can be by outstanding achievements on the court and in the classroom to the coaches & schools satisfaction.

-Following the tradition of Jim Owens, this student-athlete has a good work ethic, a strong desire & is self-motivated to do well in both the gym and the classroom.

                      Recipients of The Jim Owens Achievement Award

2010 

2009                 Shawn Tan                                 UC Irvine

2008                 Ryan Oka                                   UC Berkeley

2007                Garrett Mitsuuchi                      El Camino College

2006                Trent Hagiya                             UC San Diego

2005               Steve Turner                             South Dakota State

2004              Mike Ibarra                                Cal State Long Beach

2003              Scott Wilson                            

2002              Farbod Azizi                               Cal Poly Pomona

2001             Mike Peterson                            Whitman College of Washington

                      Matt Peterson                           UC San Diego

2000            Ben Lee                                       UC Berkeley

1999            Ryan Yamaka                             UC Irvine

1998            Dane Suenaga                           University of Hawaii

1997           Donald Harris                              Cal State San Diego

1996           David Brown                               Cal State Long Beach

1995           Derek Brown                              Loyola Marymount

1994           Paul Suguira                               

1993           Kyle McIntosh                            Georgetown

                    Jimmy Williamson                      Loyola Marymount

1992          Jason Anthony                           San Diego State

1991          Danny Fernandez                      Cal State Long Beach

1990          Dan Thompson