The Tulare Union basketball team is the Visalia Times-Delta/Tulare Advance-Register’s Tulare County high school boys’ sports team of the year for the 2025-26 school year.
2025-26 record: 31-5
Head coach: Mark Hatton
Impact players: Brayden Stevenson (guard), Demaje Riley (guard), Keanu Kennedy (forward), Jose Romero (forward), Melvin Lopez (forward), Isaiah Gray (forward), Shauntai Kimble (forward)
2025-26 Season highlights
Led by Mark Hatton, the Central Section’s all-time winningest head coach, and the combo-guard of Brayden Stevenson and Demaje Riley, Tulare Union enjoyed a historic season during the 2025-26 season.
The Tribe captured two tournament championships, winning the Andrew Bedoya Holiday Classic and Polly Wilhelmsen Invitational titles. They also claimed a share of the West Yosemite League crown for the second straight year and went on to win the Central Section Division III plaque, the program’s first section title in nearly three decades.
Along the way, Hatton and Stevenson both set personal milestones. Hatton became the section’s all-time winningest head coach, with a career-defining victory at the Wilhelmsen Invite in December, and Stevenson broke the school’s all-time scoring record in a playoff win in February. That would propel Tulare Union to its finest season in school history, as the Tribe also won three CIF State playoff games and came just a win shy of playing for a state championship.
Hatton concluded the 2025-26 campaign with a section-leading 597 career coaching victories.
Stevenson graduated in June with 1,934 career points — a new school record.
According to Central Section historian Bob Barnett, Tulare Union established a new Tulare County high school boys basketball record for most wins (31) in a single season.
The Tribe’s 31 victories rank No. 1 all-time in Tulare County, followed by the 2022 Mt. Whitney team, which won 30 games during its run to the Central Section Division II championship. The 2024 Dinuba, 2015 Mission Oak, and 2011 Central Valley Christian teams are tied for the third-most wins in a single season with 29 victories each.
In all, Tulare Union won seven straight playoff contests and averaged nearly 70 points per game.
What players and coaches said about the Tribe during the season
2026-27 Tulare Union basketball outlook
Tulare Union graduated Stevenson, the program’s all-time leading scorer, but does expect to return Riley, one of the section’s premier three-sport athletes, who is also a football and track-and-field standout.
Riley scored a game-high 25 points in the 2026 Central Section Division III title game and concluded his junior year averaging 17.2 points per game. With 1,535 career points, he will likely anchor next season’s team alongside incoming 6-foot-4 senior Melvin Lopez, who enjoyed a breakout junior campaign with 226 rebounds and 200 points.
Riley, who will be a senior during the 2026-27 school year, is a verbal commit to Fresno State football.
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Tulare County Boys Sports Team of the Year — Tulare Union basketball
Reporting by Vongni Yang, Visalia Times-Delta / Visalia Times-Delta
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Vongni Yang, Visalia Times-Delta | USA TODAY Network
