Valley View’s Mike Herrera making all kinds of shots

Watching the name “Mike Herrera” climbing up the high school golf leaderboards and continuing to do so seems to surprise everyone, except Mike Herrera himself.

It’s been that kind of postseason for the Moreno Valley Valley View senior, whose eye-opening playoff run continues today in the CIF-SCGA Southern California Regional at Brookside Golf Club in Pasadena.

Herrera, who never made it past the Inland Valley League finals before this season, is one of nine Inland-area golfers teeing off at Pasadena’s Brookside Golf Club hoping to advance to next week’s state-championship tournament at San Gabriel Country Club.

“It feels good, especially because a lot of kids don’t even know where Valley View is at, or where it is located,” Herrera said.

Coach Gordon Jones said budget cuts forced the team to take a five-year hiatus, and the last year without a team was Herrera’s freshman season.

One could hardly blame him Herrera was a solid starting shooting guard who hit a whopping 86 3-pointers last season, which led the Inland Valley League and ranked 12th in the entire Southern Section.

So when Herrera did finally get on a course, then there was the matter of the Inland Valley League.

This year, though, he tamed Yucaipa Valley Golf Club on the tournament’s second day, shooting 70 and finishing third.