It’s official! Basketball season has started. The girls’ basketball team has started training for the 2024-2025 season.
In these first few weeks of the season, the team will be working on conditioning, and teaching the new upcoming players several defenses including zone defenses and our different full-court presses.
There are three returning varsity players to the team this year. The varsity captains this year are Juniors Keely Mares and Maggie Lall. Madison Flores, a Sophomore who made varsity as a freshman, has also returned to contribute to the team. Joining them are three former JV players who are moving up the ranks: Mariama Jagnes, Charlyn Siebo and Evangeline Aitchison. The team has one Senior returning after taking a break for a year: Maddison (Goose) Hillyer. Other than these few girls, the rest of the two teams are new players.
As this season begins, the returning players will do their best to make the new girls feel like a part of the family while also growing their love and knowledge of the sport. Aitchison explains, “The girls basketball team has an interesting dynamic as we can mess with each other non-stop but if someone else does we will stand behind our teammate, holding each other instead of letting the other fall.”
Mares agrees with Aitchison when she says, “we always have a good time, and the vibes from everyone are always fun. It’s an inviting environment.”
Although the teammates are all like sisters to one another, there is a lot of work that goes into playing basketball. Madison Flores explains that one of her goals for the team is to, “make it to CIF again and hopefully pass the second round.”
Last year for the first time ever, the Santa Rosa Academy girls basketball team made it to the second round of CIF.
The program has grown so much and is always welcoming new people to the team. Aitchison encourages girls to come out saying, “People should join our program to enjoy the company of the team and work on the skills that they may acquire throughout the season or already have. Even if you have never played basketball before you should come out. We are always looking for new players and would be happy to have you in our program.”
