Bella Vista Prep, located in North Scottsdale, is back and on the rise in the state of Arizona, after winning a national championship on the Grind Session just a year ago. The program is no stranger to producing quality high-major Division-I talent over the years, as former Head Coach Kyle Weaver and former Director of Operations Dionne Phelps, together quickly built the Bella Vista program into a national prep power.
Under Kyle Weaver's guidance and leadership, the program reached new heights fast and produced loads of division-I talent for numerous high-major programs in a short period of time - producing such high-level talents as Terry Armstrong (University of Arizona-professional), Addison Patterson (University of Oregon), Rick Issanza (University of Oklahoma), Zion Harmon (Western Kentucky), Jimmy Bell (Saint Louis), Emmanuel Tshimanga (UC-Irvine), Nicolas Elame (UT-Artlington), Girr Ring (Coppin State) and Jeron Artest (UC-Irvine).
But after just two big seasons at Bella Vista Prep, Weaver and Phelps would move on - building a new prep power at Dream City Christian Prep last season. The opportunity for Weaver and Phelps was too much to pass up, and, as a result, left the Bella Vista Prep program to have to hire a new leader for their program.
After a short coaching stint under Reggie Fox last season, the program turned over the keys to the program to former University of Auburn standout player and now Head Coach Mack "Coach Mack" McGadney. McGadney played at Auburn during the 1998-99 season, and helped lead the Auburn program to a regular season conference championship. After suffering a torn ACL as a player, and seeing his tremendous playing career cut short, McGadney turned to coaching and now is one of the elite coaches and developers of talent we have in the state.
After a rebuilding season under McGadney last season, the program has, again, returned to a prep program that is absolutely loaded with prospects for college programs to take a hard look at. The program now has such top-rated national prospects as 6-foot-11 rising junior post Youssouf Singare and 6-foot-5 rising junior wing Cameron Harris, and many other prospects that are on the rise at the program.
6-foot-11 rising junior post Adrame Diongue also competed for Bella Vista Prep last season, where he made a splash for himself and was introduced to the country as another gifted member of America's 2022 Class, but Diongue looks to have decided to change prep programs, and now will attend AZ Compass Prep this season.
It will be very interesting to see which top-rated prep prospects land at the Bella Vista Prep program for this season, as prep programs in the state have become instrumental in attracting top-rated national talent to the state. The winning tradition developed at Bella Vista Prep, under the school's Director Don Brown, has been fast and consistent, and it is just a matter of time for this program to be competing, once again, for all the marbles on a national level. In the meantime, they are definitely producing some high-level talent, once again.
