Head Coach: Manny Steffen (second year)
Last year’s record: 2-10
Recap: The team fell short of CCS but showed improvement as the season continued.
Key Matchups: Mountain View, Santa Clara and Gunn
Star Players: Senior guard Urvi Iyer and senior center Riley Adler
Key losses to graduation: Zineerah Ahmed and Priyanka Meduri
League: El Camino
Prognosis:
Coming off a 2-10 season, the team is starting the preseason with motivation for major improvement in mentality. With many of their losses from last year being within 3 to 4 points, varsity head coach Manny Steffen, who is also a longtime media arts teacher at Redwood Middle School, has identified weak spots and areas of improvement in the finer details for the team that will push them forward to win those close contests.
Steffen’s daughter Payton, a forward for the team for the second straight year, has noticed improvements from last season, saying, “At practice, I feel like everyone is holding each other accountable when they don’t do a little thing. We are especially focused on boxing out when rebounding, and being loud on defense.”
Additionally, the mental part of the game is an aspect that Coach Steffen is attempting to implement in big ways as the season approaches. He explained that in his goal to restore the program he inherited from previous coaches such as current varsity boys’ coach Mike Davey and SHS staff member Danny Wallace, who both coached highly successful teams.
On the team’s retreat to Half Moon Bay on this past Veteran’s Day weekend, Steffen stressed the importance of unity as a team as they enjoyed yoga on the beach and sunrise walks.
“Basketball is a brutal sport with the emotion, amount of time, effort and energy we ask out of the players,” Steffen explained. “So, I’ve seen people support each other when they’ve had their dips. I’ve asked: Is there somebody that you can lean on right now? — and [the team] has leaned on that retreat already. I’m really thankful for that because I had just crossed my fingers and hoped so badly that [the retreat] would go well, and from my vantage point it went better than expected.”.
Players on the team have also noticed the shift that the retreat has brought to the mentality and camaraderie of the group.
Sophomore forward Emma Williams said, “The retreat was absolutely spectacular because it allowed us to bond as a team and as people outside of just basketball. I think it made us think about how we wanted the season to be, instead of just going into it and hoping for the best.
The mental shift that the team has made has also allowed for improvements on the court. Coach Steffen, alongside assistant coaches Alexis Merriweather and Lisa Ginestet-Araki, wants to center the team around values of making sure the little things in games are perfect, such as resilience in offensive rebounding and defensive toughness.
“I think it’s really great that we have two assistant coaches this year because we didn’t have any last year, and it definitely helps our team a lot, especially during practice because they help us be more efficient with our time, and being able to run multiple drills at once,” Payton said. “Having people like Coach Ginestet-Araki, a teacher, really helps because she understands the workload that we have in school and how to balance that with basketball. Our new coach, Alexis, brings a better team mentality as she has coached at a highly competitive level in AAU.”
While newcomers have brought their own expertise to the team, veterans such as senior Urvi Iyer have noticed the shift that the program has taken since her freshman year. Although the starting five on the team is changeable depending on the opponent, longtime players like Iyer and center Riley Adler are generally key leading contributors of the group.
“The team is definitely the best it’s ever been,” Iyer said. “The retreat and the focus on mentality has been really good for our team because it’s allowed us to get to know each other on a more personal level instead of just as players. Because of that, I think it’s going to help the team throughout the season and make the whole process super fun and enjoyable.”
