The varsity girl’s basketball team is having an electric season this year with a record of 8-3 in the league. After a fantastic season last year, can they live up to the expectations? Head Coach Jennifer Krill believes they can and will.
“Last year we made it to the North Cal Semi-Finals,” she described. “We won the section last year and won at Golden One. If we keep playing well we can get a couple of home games in the playoffs. I look at it like everyone we have coming back, the JV kids and the three returning varsity players, I feel like they are all better versions of themselves than last year.”
Krill explained how her team this year contrasts with teams she has coached in the past.
“Compared to last year, I think we are pretty similar in a lot of ways except we are a lot younger,” she said. “Our style of play is very similar but last year we had four seniors, and this year we have two. So in that way, we are younger, and we are not going to graduate as many.”
The girl’s varsity team is considered a young team because of the many varsity players they lost last year and how several JV girls had to come up and fill those spots. Krill expressed how losing so many varsity players has affected their team.
“It definitely affects it from a leadership standpoint,” she explained. “We had three returners because not only did we lose our four seniors, we lost the Vieira sisters who moved to Idaho. So we lost six of our ten from last year. It was kind of a different transition because we had six JV kids join us. Sarah DeSart has done a really good job being a good leader and Krissy Kelly has done a good job being a leader this year. I think they are starting to grow into those roles a little bit and that’s kind of helped us move forward.”
Senior Sarah DeSart has been involved in basketball for eight years; she’s played on girl’s varsity for two. She mentioned how she is proud of her growth as a player.
“Something I’ve done that I’m proud of is going from not playing very much last year to being able to start this year,” she said.
DeSart described some of the shortcomings of the team.
“A little bit of a weakness is that we are a young team,” she explained. “We only have two seniors this year.”
While she sees their youth as a weakness, junior Sabrina Mantooth views it as a strength. Since a lot of JV players moved up to varsity at the same time, it helps bring them together, as Mantooth explained.
“Our strengths are probably that we have played together for a while,” she said. “We have known each other for a long time.”
Mantooth has played on JV for two years and joined varsity this year. She described how JV and varsity games differ.
“Varsity is a bigger deal overall for the school so there is more pressure,” she stated. “Because of that, we are closer because we try harder.”
With the end of the season around the corner, the girls hope to finish off the season strong and make it to playoffs!
