‘Pseudo juco’: Sunrise basketball’s elite post-graduate team turning to Wichita stars
Shortly after Sunrise Christian Academy was founded in 1983, Wichita natives comprised a basketball team that would eventually become one of the best in Kansas.
Over time, the program became so good that Sunrise started bringing in top players from around the U.S. and abroad — sometimes at first, and increasingly as the years passed — at the expense of roster spots for talented Wichita-area kids. Even those with Division I-level skills, who had come up through the ranks of local middle and high schools, were often overlooked.
Change, however, is afoot again at the school of 550 students in Bel Aire.
Sunrise’s post-graduate team, one of three squads that comprise the school’s basketball program, recently secured the pledges of two of the best players among the Wichita area’s senior class of 2020: Eisenhower’s Jordan Vincent and Heights’ Jaxon Pillich, who spent the past season in Las Vegas.
With former Collegiate star Gradey Dick also making the switch to Sunrise, officials at the academy are hoping to fortify their profile and create more of a general following around Wichita.
“We’re trying to build a family tradition,” post-graduate coach Achoki Moikobu said. “When you put on that Sunrise jersey, it means a little bit more. It’s about pride in creating that environment, and I think local kids have that chip you can’t find anywhere else.”
Post-graduate opportunity
The post-grad route is becoming more attractive, Moikobu said. He maintains that there are dozens of reasons a player might benefit from another year of pre-college competition before heading off to a four-year university.
Circumstances vary by individual, of course, but reclassifying into a different graduating class can mean a player finds additional scholarship dollars or playing time.
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Gaining exposure without losing eligibility might well be the most attractive thing post-graduate basketball offers. Sunrise plays against some of the best junior-college programs in the country, as well as other top-notch post-grad teams. The exposure to scouts that Sunrise players enjoy during these games is at least on par with what a typical junior-college player might receive.
The difference between the junior-college and post-grad routes is that after one year at an academy like Sunrise, a player can move on to Division I hoops and still be classified as an incoming freshman. If a player competes at a juco for a year and then moves on to Division I, he comes in as a sophomore, one year of college eligibility already spent.
Moikobu said spending a year at Sunrise, where high school tuition runs $8,600 a year, allows players the opportunity to gain additional skills in preparation for the college-basketball experience. And in terms of selling points in attracting premier talent, it doesn’t hurt that Sunrise is known for turning out Division I men’s basketball players — 76, at last count.
“Junior college is great, but it’s not for everybody,” Moikobu said. “Post-grad is a growing brand. The fact that we have one right here in Wichita and it’s of quality, I think it’s a plus. I think we put a good product on the floor.”
Moikobu even has a term for the niche Sunrise occupies: “Pseudo juco,” he said.
Back to Wichita
For years, the outside assessment of Sunrise was that expectations there were unattainable for Wichita-area players, even the best of them.
And that’s just the reality, to some extent. Sunrise’s elite high school team ranked as high as No. 4 in some recent national polls, and not everyone who wants to play there can be accepted, Sunrise high school coach Luke Barnwell said.
But Barnwell was up for a national coaching award this year largely because of the progress his team made during the 2019-20 season, and much of that success could be traced to a player from Wichita. And now, that player — Ty Berry, who hails from Newton — could help draw in more of the Wichita area’s best players.
Berry played at Newton High through his junior season. He helped lead the Railers to their first winning season in a decade as a sophomore and held scholarships from the likes of Wichita State and Minnesota. But he chose Northwestern after transferring to Sunrise for his senior year.
Barnwell said Berry had some of the best players in the country around him at Sunrise, and that helped him improve his own skills.
“Ty has been our best recruiter,” Moikobu said. “Ty has kind of changed his life, changed his mindset, and found that competitive spirit that I’m not sure he knew he had. He has been adamant about getting out into the community. He understands what it has done to him, and he wants to give that back.”
Of course, Vincent, Pillich and Dick — Sunrise’s next wave of Wichita-area talent— aren’t exactly average players, either.
One of Eisenhower’s best all-time, Vincent won an AVCTL II league MVP award. Pillich was going to be an All-Metro candidate at Heights before transferring out of state. And Dick is a four-star prospect who’s already garnered scholarship offers from some top Division I programs.
A chance for Kansas kids
The hard reality is this: Kansas high school athletes are often overlooked nationally.
So some, like Vincent, Pillich and Dick, will seek out Sunrise for its global scope and greater exposure.
“Locally, we can do a lot for kids who need that chance,” Moikobu said. “There are good players in Kansas. They just don’t always get a fair shake.”
Pillich said he was getting some exposure in Las Vegas, but it was time to come back home.
“I get the chance to start over again,” Pillich said. “I felt like I needed another year to help my academics, and of course (improve) on the floor. I feel like I have a high ceiling. I just need to keep improving and Sunrise can help me improve tremendously.”
All of the players interviewed for this story said they look forward to competing in front of Wichita crowds. Being a tiny K-12 school, Sunrise has a gym that’s smaller than most in the area.
Its audiences for even big games might number only in the hundreds, but look around and some of the best Division I coaches in the country might be in attendance, too.
“We’re not looking for necessarily the most talented kid,” Moikobu said. “We’re looking for a kid who understands our culture.
“As the program grows and the media exposure grows, it’s something kids really, really want to be a part of.”