By Samm Sharp Posted December 20, 2019
Subjectively, the first year of high school sports either makes or breaks a player. It’s a new team, new people, and a lot of changes. But with hard work and dedication, the freshman girls’ basketball team has come far in just a few weeks.
Coach Larry Renteria believes the girls have lots of potential; they just need some fine-tuning.
“You set goals as a team to get better. To be better, they just need to work on the basic skills,” said Renteria. “We have a small team, so we have to hustle and work hard. A good group of girls, they get along well, they are learning, and then we will start to work on developing offense and fine-tuning the defense.”
In regards to goals, Ryleigh Rabee mentioned one that is very important to her and all of the team members.
“Our goal is to give it our all and be able to walk off the court proud, no matter the score,” said Rabee.
Belen Barocio agrees with Renteria that the team needs some work.
“The team, in general, needs some improvement, but we are all working hard to be our best on the court,” stated Barocio.
Their first game of the season was a little rough, but the girls are making strides to become more cohesive as a team.
“We were still trying to figure things out,” said Rabee. “We worked our hardest, and it showed. Our defense has been coming together, but we need to work on offense and getting open.”
Belen Barocio and Alex Barocio both believe the Elko tournament started out poorly, but the team put their heads together to pull out some wins.
“The tournament was rough, but we pulled through and put our best effort in,” said Belen.
“It was a rough start, but we gathered ourselves later on and were able to find wins,” said Alex.
To prepare for upcoming games, Rabee stated the girls are working hard on defense.
“Our main focus is defense since we’ve lost a lot of players,” said Rabee. “We’re learning to play their spots. I’m playing point guard now, which allows me to see the court in new ways and get more confident with the ball.”
Alex Barocio is eager to see how her teammates grow as the season moves forward.
“I feel like we are all going to grow as individuals and as a team as the season progresses,” said Alex.
All in all, coach Renteria is proud of the girls, and he knows how to individualize the coaching experience based on his players.
“I’ve been coaching for about four to five years, and every team is different,” said Renteria. “You adjust based on the player’s strengths and weaknesses.”
