Girls’ Basketball: Team works on communication, getting ahead in the game

As the girls’ basketball season commences, the players plan to work on certain weaknesses, but overall have high expectations on how they will do this season. Coach Mike Davey is shooting high, aiming for the girls to “play as hard as [they] can, win as many games as possible and to have fun.”

The team is steadily working to overcome early detected issues, such as talking to one another on defense.

“Improving on communicating on defense is important,” said sophomore guard Shriya Nagpal. “But we have some amazing shooters and a lot of posts, so this will be a good season.”

Making it to CCS will come with a lot of hard work on the girls’ part as the team is in the highest league possible.

“We would like to win league, but we are in the toughest public school league in the whole section,” said coach Davey, “so you have to be realistic, too.” The team will be facing tough school such as Valley Christian and Wilcox.

The girls do have their work cut out for them.

“Our offense is strong, but our defense is pretty weak,” said senior captain and post Baylee Yates. “In order to do well, we’re really going to need to improve our defense.”

Becoming close is also vital for the success of the team, which has been a bit of a problem in the past. In addition, Yates added, “Everyone needs to work together because we’ve had teams in the past where the girls didn’t like each other, so working together and getting along will help us a lot this season.”

Reaching CCS is the hope for the team, but unpredictable based on the previous years’ results from past league champions.

“Last year, the representative for our league lost in the CCS finals,” said coach Davey, “and the year before that our representative won in the CCS.”

Along with improving their strengths, the girls need to work on their weaknesses to place at CCS.

“Our defense [needs improvements], because our offense is pretty good,” said Yates. Yates as well as the rest of the team hopes all varsity players from last year will be returning. Key players include senior post Nicole Gragnola, Yates, senior guard Anna Schroeder and Nagpal.

The team will be depending on experience and the girls’ ability to lead them to the finals.

“We are a senior league team, so we have a lot of experience and our main thing is that we have a lot of depth and a lot of girls who play different positions,” said coach Davey.