JV basketball tournament at Santa Ana named in honor of valued athletic staff member Luis Aduna

A JV boys basketball tournament at Santa Ana will be held in honor of Luis “Chia” Aduna (Photo courtesy Santa Ana High School)

The inaugural Luis Aduna JV Boys Basketball Shootout will be held at Santa Ana High School Nov. 26-Dec. 1.

The tournament is named after Luis “Chia” Aduna, who played varsity basketball in his four years at Santa Ana, graduated in 1999 and has been part of the Santa Ana Athletic Department since 2001.

A banner was recently unveiled to announce the tournament being named in honor of Aduna.

“I was surprised when the banner was unveiled,” Aduna said.  “It made me feel like I’m appreciated here, that I’m part of Santa Ana history and that I am wanted in the Saints Family.”

“It feels great to be gratified for all of my years of service to the athletic programs. I’ve been helping out and contributing running the scoreboard and other activities not just for basketball, but for all Santa Ana sports programs for quite some time. It’s an indescribable feeling to receive such honor, especially when I have such strong roots to this school. ”

Varsity basketball coach Fareed El Masry praised Aduna’s accomplishments.

“When I was hired there were two tournaments already scheduled for us to host: a freshmen tournament named after our equipment manager, Luis Macias, and a JV tournament with no name,” he said.

“After roughly five seasons of hosting the JV tournament, I decided to rename it after Luis Aduna who has been our tournament coordinator for all the tournaments we host. He has been a reliable and important component of the success of our tournaments. It just made sense to give Luis Aduna the attention he deserved for his commitment to our program. Without Luis Aduna, our tournaments don’t exist.”

There will be four pools of three teams each. The first pool will include Santa Ana, Servite and La Habra; the second pool will include Corona del Mar, Portola and Yorba Linda; the third pool will include VIlla Park, Sunny Hills and Orange and the fourth pool will include Estancia, Ocean View and Valencia.

The first game of the tournament will feature Servite vs. La Habra on Monday, Nov. 26 at 3 p.m. Santa Ana’s first game will be Tuesday, Nov. 27 against Servite at 6:45 pm.