Watching Anaheim Canyon’s 6-foot-5 senior Brandon Benjamin score, rebound, pass and continuously make a difference on a basketball court against everyone and anyone brings back memories of Jaime Jaquez Jr., who looks like his twin.

“I like the comparison,” coach Nathan Harrison said.

Jaquez used to deploy many different skills during his days at Camarillo High. Some wondered if they would translate at a higher level. Well, they did, first at UCLA and now with the Miami Heat.

The same will be said one day of Benjamin, who’s averaging 30.7 points and is committed to San Diego. Last Saturday, after a game against previously unbeaten Mira Costa in which he scored 30 points with zero turnovers, Mira Costa coach Neal Perlmutter said, “That’s hard to do.”

Said Benjamin: “I just feel you have to play smart, you have to make the right decisions and you can’t force things.”

Then on Monday at the Intuit Dome, he scored 29 points in an overtime win over San Gabriel Academy. It doesn’t matter the opponent or the venue, Benjamin consistently delivers.

Benjamin has gotten used to being double teamed so many times that he knows exactly how to get the ball to teammates. He grew up with opponents trying to trap him as a youth player and Harrison has worked on box-and-one defenses in practices to prepare Benjamin.

“I got used to it, learning how to move around and not get frustrated,” he said.

Benjamin is proof you can return home and be welcomed with open arms. He left to play his junior season at Mater Dei, where he led the Monarchs in rebounding (8.4 per game) and was the fourth-leading scorer (13.7), then returned to Canyon last March.

He’s not going to lie about what it was like walking around the Canyon campus in his return.

“At first, it was little awkward seeing people you know and haven’t seen in a year and were buddy-buddy with,” he said. “After a week or two, I still had a lot of friends. I felt real relaxed. I felt like I was home.”

Benjamin said his Mater Dei experience was mostly positive, complimenting coach Gary McKnight.

“I enjoyed it,” he said. “Not everything is perfect in this life. I have nothing negative to say, only good things about coach McKnight.”

His return to Canyon has worked out. He likes the neighborhood atmosphere at games and appreciates Harrison letting him do what he does best — be himself.

“He has a reputation as this incredible scorer, but he’s just as effective as a passer and kind of runs our team as a point guard,” Harrison said. “The zero turnovers is even more impressive considering how many times he’s touching the ball. He makes all the players so much better.”

Even more intriguing is how Benjamin is preparing himself for college. He’s played forward or center for all four years of high school. At 17, he still has plenty of room to improve, and he’s been working on his guard skills because that’s what San Diego coach Steve Lavin wants him to play.

“I’ve been trying to work on my quickness, strength, ballhandling,” Benjamin said. “He wants me to play guard. It’s going to be a challenge because playing center/forward until now in high school, [this] is something new. I’m down for the challenge.”

Canyon fans have Benjamin’s back, and Harrison is just thankful to have a chance to coach him again.

“We’ve always liked Brandon,” he said. “We appreciated how hard he played for us. We just live in a different era. You can’t take it personally. Young people have a lot in their ears. He’s very comfortable with us and we think we do a good job utilizing our kids.”

As for lessons learned, Benjamin said, “If some of these guys are [as] good as they say, they should stay at their school and try to make themselves a winning school. A lot of college coaches don’t look at high school ball. It’s really the AAU circuit. I feel that’s the path to success.”

FOXBORO, Mass. — Mike Vrabel has a plan for Drake Maye. For the young quarterback, who’s coming off a promising rookie season, it’s less about specific footwork and not really — at least yet — about reads, processing or mechanics.

Vrabel, officially now the head coach of the New England Patriots, has been around enough quarterbacks to know what success at that position should look and sound like. And that’s where he thinks he can most help the 22-year-old Maye.

“Drake is going to be his own person, but I’m going to give him some things that I feel like are necessary to help us win football games,” Vrabel said during his introductory news conference Monday.

Left unsaid during the pomp of Vrabel’s big day is what his presence next to Maye solidifies. Even if the Patriots have plenty of other issues that require fixing, they believe they have their coach and quarterback for years to come, the most important pairing in professional sports. They haven’t had that since at least Mac Jones’ rookie season (with Bill Belichick) in 2021, perhaps since Tom Brady had a locker at Gillette Stadium.

In a league that’s all about the head coach and quarterback, it’s OK that the Patriots’ to-do list is long and difficult. Nothing really matters until you have the right coach and quarterback. Now the Patriots feel they have both.

There’s a long way to go for both Vrabel and Maye to make this work the way the Patriots envision, but it’s also fair to note there are probably not too many other coach-quarterback pairs you’d no doubt take over Vrabel and Maye for the next five years. That’s not to anoint them the second coming of Belichick and Brady. But it’s the one reason that amid so many other issues, there’s a lot of optimism right now in New England.

“Put great people around him,” Vrabel said of his plan for Maye. “I would say that my involvement will be as it relates to game management and situational awareness and where we are on the football field and trying to develop him as a leader of the offense. When a quarterback calls the play, you want to say it like everybody’s going to believe that it’s going to score a touchdown — like with that type of emphasis on how everything is going to operate.”

Mike Vrabel on developing @DrakeMaye2 and the Patriots offense. pic.twitter.com/k3gisgBG97

— New England Patriots (@Patriots) January 13, 2025

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It sounds wild given how bad the Patriots have been the last few years and the state of the roster, but there probably aren’t many pairings more promising over the next five years than Vrabel and Maye. The Chiefs, Bengals, Bills, Ravens, Chargers and 49ers have solid arguments for a better pairing. But the Patriots could be in the next tier with the Texans, Eagles and Lions.

Perhaps one of the slights on the duo could be that Vrabel’s passing offenses with the Titans never put up gaudy numbers. During their 11-win season in 2020, they ranked 23rd in passing yards. When they won 12 games the next year, they ranked 25th. But that would ignore their efficiency. In those two years, they ranked third and sixth in passing success rate.

For his part, Vrabel tried to put to rest the concerns that he’s always had run-first offenses, which doesn’t seem ideal for a promising young quarterback.

“We have to be a very efficient passing football team,” Vrabel said. “When you look at statistically what wins in the National Football League, our ability to affect the other team’s quarterback and our ability to provide for an efficient quarterback and passing game is a high contributor to success.”

Of course, Maye’s development is going to be largely pinned on whomever Vrabel picks as his offensive coordinator.

Vrabel said that decision isn’t close to being made yet and that the Patriots will do a full search to fill out their coaching staff.

GO DEEPER

New Patriots coach Mike Vrabel will have his pick of offensive and defensive coordinators

“That’s far from solidified,” he said. “We want to put the best, (most) talented coaches in front of our players. … I want the players to embrace what every coach is teaching. I will tell you this, as long as I’m the head coach here, our coaches will have three simple jobs — and they sound simple, but they’re probably not as simple as we want to make them be. They want to teach, they want to develop and they want to inspire our players by making a connection.”

On this day, a celebratory one in front of a slew of microphones and cameras, Vrabel seemed to have all the right details and answers down to the three tasks for his assistant coaches.

On Day 1, he brought stability and respectability to a franchise badly in need of it. And in the process, he’s paired now with Maye to give the Patriots assurances at the two most important spots in building an NFL team.

(Photos: Eric Canha and Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Images)

The Kansas City Chiefs’ quest for an unprecedented third consecutive Vince Lombardi Trophy begins in earnest on Saturday when they welcome the Houston Texans to Arrowhead Stadium for a playoff game.

The Texans upset the Los Angeles Chargers in the wild-card round over the weekend, which punched their ticket to the divisional round. Travis Kelce, 35, has been in the NFL for more than a decade, but the Chiefs star tight end told ESPN’s Pat McAfee he still feels like he has the energy of a young athlete.

Kelce actually mentioned a specific number — 22 — when he was asked about how he felt as the Chiefs head into the playoffs. “22” is also the title of one of pop star Taylor Swift’s songs from her album “Red.”

“I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling 22,” he said in a nod to one of the song’s lyrics this week during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” this week.

Kelce and Swift have been romantically linked for more than a year, with the singer making routine appearances at Chiefs games since the 2023 season.

Taylor looked lucky in love as she supported Travis Kelce following his big win at the AFC Championship game. (Patrick Smith)

Kelce was recently named to his 10th consecutive Pro Bowl. But, he likely hopes to skip the event and in favor of competing in the Super Bowl in New Orleans.

TRAVIS KELCE RECEIVES MOST FAN VOTES FOR 2025 PRO BOWL

Although Kelce fell short of the coveted 1,000 receiving yards mark this past regular season, he appeared to round into playoff form as the year progressed.

Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce after making a catch during warmups before an NFL football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Nov. 4, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo.  (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann, File)

He finished the Chiefs’ Christmas Day victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers with 84 receiving yards and a touchdown reception.

Kelce has been a key part of three Super Bowl winning teams, including the Chiefs win over the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl LVII and last year’s title run. No NFL team has ever won three consecutive Super Bowl titles.

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