The season kicks off against Manual, hoping to make a great impression, and making their coach proud as he approaches his last season of coaching
Artwork by Ed Gloor
As the well anticipated season aproaches, the TJ Girls’ basketball team gets prepared for the opening night game on November 30 vs Manual at home.
Last season the TJ girls ended with a 6-17 record, but this season the record is bound to improve with the new team coming in. The varsity team consists of Brealah McGinnis, Ashley Berry, Tori Perez, Olivia Breningstall, Becca Randall, Cleora Kepoke, Brie Cueva, Mallory Lopez, Kessanet Negash and Essence Reece. “I’m looking forward to our new team this year. I believe we are going to be different with all the new additions to our team,” said McGinnis. The varsity team has been practicing throughout the offseason in hopes of more wins. “I think we are so different from last year. We have improved a lot just by the major turnout of girls and the commitment we have put into basketball,” added McGinnis.
This year Head Coach Steve Thomas, who unfortunately doesn’t work at TJ anymore, still is apart of the TJ girls hoop squad family. “It’s really hard not working here and coming back and forth everyday,” said Thomas. This year will also be his last year for coaching the girls basketball team, and the girls are planning to take a step further and make a great coach proud. “I’m going to leave everything on the court to make his last season worth it,” said Junior Cleora Kepoke. “I want Coach Thomas to look back to his last year and say that we were his best team,” added Kepoke.
Other than looking forward to a great season a couple girls also look forward to accomplishing their personal goals. McGinnis and Randall both plan on making it to 1st team all league. “This year I believe we could do it I’m going to work hard. Last year I made it to 2nd team all league but this year I have confidence in making it to 1st team,” said Randall.
Becca also wants to average a Double Double every game, and Braleah as starting point guard wants to have no turnovers for the whole season, keeping the team under control with the ball. As a team they all plan to make it to 3rd round playoffs and be the undefeated team that no one expected. “This year the team is looking real good I want to prove everyone wrong, especially the teams who don’t believe we’ll beat them,” explained Randall.
As the first game approaches, November 30th 2011, the girls hope to show the school how much they’ve improved. They want everyone supporting and believing in the girls’ basketball team this year. “I know we can do it. I want to show everyone that we are for real this year, no joke, no play, simply just playing the game we all love, basketball,”said Olivia Bernigstall.
