The Girls Varsity Basketball Team hopes to have a great season and make CIF playoffs once again.

   According to the Maxpreps website, last year the team finished the season with an average of approximately 42 points per game out of a total 1146 points, about 30 rebounds a game — both offensive and defensive — out of a total 817 rebounds, and 194 assists (maxpreps.com). This year, they want to try and raise these numbers by working hard and playing well as a team

   Last year the team was 7-5 in League and accomplished their goal of making the playoffs. Girls Varsity Coach Mary Ann McLaughlin said, “The goal is just to get everybody on the team playing well together. We want to do as well as we can in League, but unfortunately, we got put in the top League, the Western League. I think we can do it, we just have our strengths and our weaknesses. Our strength is that we have the best backcourt team since I started coaching here at UC High. We just don’t have the big bodies on the inside.”

   The team wants to make playoffs again this year. “We plan to make CIF playoffs by playing cohesively as a team and building on each other’s strengths,” said Sophomore Sammie Staples. “Probably our biggest challenge, and the team that’s really our rival, is Scripps Ranch. They won Western League last year,” stated McLaughlin.

   In addition to playing certain teams from last year, this year the team will be playing new schools such as Serra High, Kearny High, and San Diego High in league. “We are most excited to play Cathedral Catholic. Last year, we were 1-1 against Cathedral, and both games were very close,” added Staples.

   A player to look out for this year is Senior Madison Wills, one of the top three-point shooters. “She’s returning and she’s going to have a lot of pressure on her – all the teams are going to be guarding her and double guarding her,” stated McLaughlin.   

   In addition to practice, many of this year’s students interested in playing basketball were also placed in sixth period PE, where they work on their extra skills beyond regular practice hours. “It’s sort of like a strength and conditioning [class], but we’ve talked about how when the season starts, it might become more,” explained Freshman Riley Reinhardt.

   McLaughlin said, “This season, all of the basketball programs are in new Leagues. Now we no longer play the double header Friday night games with the boys team, so it’s going to be very different for us this season.”