With the fall sports seasons finally coming to end, boys and girls basketball have officially begun. Each having lost a majority of last year’s senior players, the teams look to rebuild and succeed.

Girls Varsity Basketball

The varsity girls basketball team is looking forward to a strong season despite its relatively young team. The team is planning to participate in a tournament at Archbishop Mitty on Saturday, December 27, playing top schools in the West Catholic and De Anza Divisions. Varsity coach Keith Mims expects the pre-season to be twice as difficult as the regular season.
Mims has high expectations for the team and keeps one specific goal in mind.
“Our goal is to win league and [we] expect to win league,” Mims said.
The success of the team relies on a small team with only three returning seniors: Anna Schneider, Lauren Taylor and Mae Santiago.
“I feel really good about the team this year,” Anna said. “I’m really excited to start league because I think we’re going to do really well.”
Sophomores Vanessa Kirchhofer, Jordan Hamel, Emily Pacholski, Teresa Fabbricino and Claire Evangelista are new players who have moved up from JV.
“I can’t wait for league to start because I think there are going to be some really close, exciting games,” Lauren said. “We have a tough pre-season and several tournaments coming up so that should prepare us well for league.”
The team has high hopes for a successful but hardworking season.
“It’s going to be an uphill battle for us,” Mims said. “But we keep improving day by day.”
So far the girls varsity team is 1-4 in their pre-season.

Boys Varsity Basketball

The varsity boys basketball team is looking forward to a challenging but exciting season in its first year in the higher De Anza Division. The team won league in the El Camino Division last year but will face greater competition this year.
“The question is how we will do in higher competition,” varsity coach James Reilly said. “But we definitely deserve to be in the higher league.”
The team lost a total of seven seniors from last year’s graduating class, but expects to make up for the loss.
“We have to work harder because we’re a smaller team,” junior Sammy Meckler said.
The team will have to rely especially on three key returning players: juniors Spencer Wells and Sean Wells and senior David Amorese.
“They played big roles last year and will have to play bigger roles this year,” Reilly said.
The team has many new players who moved up from JV last year including Sammy, juniors Sean Small, Tim Vanneman, Nate Worley, Kelly Clark and David Ilishah, along with sophomore Scott Yuan.
“I think we are about as talented as we were last year,” Reilly said. “It’s just a matter if [the] guys from JV adapt to varsity. There are bigger guys and quicker guys.”
“It will be tougher than last year because we just moved up,” David said. “But I think the team will compete well.”
The boys have a 1-1 record so far in their preseason.
“When we go through dry spells, we go to the Wells,” Sammy said.