The Girls Varsity Basketball Team strives to exceed the achievements set last year through teamwork, communication, and resilience during the 2023-2024 season.
“We have a new coach this year so I think that’s definitely boosting the team’s morale. Ultimately, Head Coach Romie Apostol is a great coach and she’s been very positive and so have the assistant coaches. They’ve all been a positive influence on us and push us to improve as individuals but as a team as well,” said Senior Kaela Martinez.
Apostol was selected to lead the team this season as the new head coach. “I’ve been the assistant coach for a while. I also coached here prior to this for junior varsity as well with a different head coach. Also, I actually went to school here and graduated in 2004,” said Apostol. She added, “It’s been good to run my own plays and be able to work with the players one-on-one.”
Apostol emphasized the importance of teamwork in helping the team’s success during the season. “It’s getting a lot better. In the beginning, there were a lot of issues surrounding it, but now, they are communicating a lot better. They’re talking to each other about the plays, who should be where, and at what spot,” said Apostol.
The team’s strong ability to connect and support one another has been remarked by players and coaches alike. “The relationship between the players is good. We’ve all kind of bonded. We’re all from different friend groups and different ages, but basketball brings us together and has created a bond between all of us,” said Martinez. “Everyone is super nice to each other. We all laugh and have fun. Practices and games are always fun and we always pick each other up,” said Senior Chaya Scott.
“We have really good team chemistry this year. Everyone gets along really well and we all know the plays and where everyone is supposed to be on the court, and we follow through with it, which makes it easier to work together,” said Senior Bella Giron.
“They all know each other at school, obviously. But in practice, they’re always working on their communication and constantly talking to each other, which I think is one of our attributes that puts us above our opponents,” said Apostol.
“I think one of our main strengths is that we have a lot of athletic ability on our team. Most of us don’t play basketball as our main sport, but we’re very athletic and smart so we can pick up on our plays quicker,” said Martinez.
At practices, the team works on a variety of components in order to excel on the court. “I’m constantly preaching communication at practice every single day, so I’m making them talk to each other to see what each player wants, needs, and can improve on. But I’m also having them work on their individual skills because it’s very hard to do that in practice,” said Romie. Scott added, “We are working harder every single practice and game to improve on the small aspects that will make the game easier and help us grow as a team.”
“Last year, we went far in our division and won League. We are hoping to continue that this year, but we did move up in our conference so it’s going to take a little bit more work and effort from the team,” said Apostol.
“We are definitely reaching to be League Champions again to follow last year’s win, and hopefully make it further into CIFs than we did last season,” said Giron. “We strive to win. I do believe that’s one of our objectives but also to get better as a Basketball Team together and grow the program,” said Martinez.
“The team’s objective is to win as many games as we can, have as much fun as we can, and have a good season,” said Scott.