Blue and Gold

It's 12/31/09 and 10:20pm and am just reflecting on not only this year but the last couple of weeks. Of coarse I am thinking about Blue and Gold, and the ladies who wear those uniforms. They are a constant thought of mine. What a blessing in my life they are to me!

We started our preseason on November 30th in the Downey Tournament. We played ok for the situation we were in. We finished in the top four of 16 teams, losing to North Torrance by 3 and to Palos Verdes by like 6. We then had 3 really good and intense practices and ready for our second tournament. We began the Glenn/Norwalk tournament in the 2nd week of December, we played Bassett (65 to 10) game 1, game 2 Santa Fe (61 to 17), game 3 against Long Beach Wilson (53 to 39) and played in the Championship game against Orange Lutheran (42 to 53). I was very impressed with the play of the girls. What a different team. We then played Artesia and beat them pretty easily on the 17th and then play Los Alamitos at Warren on the 22nd. Wow, something happened that game. There was a great crowd and Los Alamitos pretty much thought they were going to walk all over us. That didn't happened. Franny lit a fire, Dani lead as a point guard should. The final score was 57 to 24, us. We all were pretty impressed. Our defense was key and was huge.

Our next tournament was the Cantwell tournament which started on December 23rd. We were suppose to be in the Marina tournament but the coach "forgot about us" and so at the last minute needed another tournament. Cantwell had some openings and usually have run a pretty good tournament. So we jumped into that one. We opened with Temple City (62 to 12), a win. We then had our Christmas party that night and we gave the girls a blue and yellow towel and there numbers are on each towel. The girls were really excited. We played again on Saturday the 26th and had 2 games. We played LA Wilson (68 to 42), and Alhambra (80 to 32) both wins. The Alhambra coach saw us at the Cal State Long Beach game and basically told the girls that she would see them on the court. The girls got fired up about it. It was funny. After playing them the coach has a lot of respect for us. Then we played Cantwell on Monday Dec. 28th. That was a very intense game. Their crowd was very rude and disrespectful. They are what kept the game close. We ended up winning that game 44 to 38, advancing to the Championship game against Los Osos. Again we had heard that the Los Osos team and coach was talking a lot of trash about us and how they were going to beat us and run us to the dirt, or whatever it was. They are a good team but a very undisciplined team. So here came Wednesday the 30th of December. We had shoot around at 2pm and made some adjustments to be better prepared to play Los Osos. The girls were ready. We told them that we needed to be patient and stay calm.

Girls got to Cantwell HS at 8pm and then hung out in the locker room to get ready for game. We were the home team. We had our little team pep talk before the game. Again a special feeling was there. Everyone looked calm and ready to go. Something happened at the Los Alamitos game. Switches turned on in the Lady Bears head. They are more eager and more committed to play. It's been fun to be apart of and see them play.

Game time! Tip off 9:30pm! We won the tip. It was a very intense game. We had a large crowd. Our fans, St. Josephs was there watching us as well, Cantwell even cheered for us. It was a lot of fun. Our plan was to force them to run and play a half court offense. Instead of our trapping we just contained them so that time ticked and they had to force an outside shot. We lost first quarter 15 to 17. We made a couple of adjustments and the girls exploded we won the second quarter 20 to 10. We were up at half time. Los Osos was very frustrated and our plan was working. The adjustments we made earlier that day were working. We also decided in the 2nd quarter to go big. Our lineup consisted of Dani at point, Tahja as the 2 guard, Franny at the high post and Justene and Jasmin at the blocks. This forced Los Osos to have to decide who they were going to guard. If they picked up Franny, Dani or Tahja were open outside, if not the blocks were wide open. Holy Smokes! It was working. Justene stepped up big for us! Half time we made defensive adjustments by going to a 2-3 and denying big girl the ball. It worked. There guards were having to shoot way out of range shots. 3rd quarter stared and Tahja lit the fire. She hit 5 three pointers in the 3rd quarter. It was unbelievable. We took a time out early on, like the 2nd minute when they tried to make run. That killed that and Tahja went nuts. That opened a lot. Dani had a fast break and an and one! It was pretty awesome. At that point there wasn't much Los Osos could do. We won 3rd quarter 21 to 10. We were up by like 21 pts. 4th quarter started and that was pretty much that. We slowed the game down to use the clock up and it worked. We won the game 63 to 46. We won the tournament and Champions. Franny was named MVP of the tournament (because really she was a phenom) and Dani was name on the All tournament team. We got a huge plaque and took pics. It was exciting and am so proud of the girls. We had cider in the locker room for them and I grabbed a bottle and started to spray it on them. We had fun. We talked a little bit to them and sent them on there way. The parents were so excited and many compliments from the fans that were watching the game.

The girls have 2 days off and then back to work on Saturday. They will get there second animal for week one in January. We will start doing an animal a week. They are pretty excited about that. We play Westminster and Schurr on the 6th and the 8th of January and then begin league on the 13th. We are pretty excited and getting ready for Lynwood. Here we come! We are almost ready.

Right now we are currently 12 and 3 in our preseason, 3rd in the Region (bishop amat, lynwood and then Warren). We are 13th in CIF Div 1AA and 48th in the top 50 of the LA times. We are like 6th in the Press telegram. I am so proud of these girls. We are headed in the right direction. What an honor to be apart of this program and to be working with these girls.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Years!