GILROY—On paper, there are a lot question marks surrounding Gilroy’s squad heading into the season. It graduated seven seniors and really only has one big man on the roster. It’s a young team, made up of mostly juniors and sophomores. But there’s an abundance of things you don’t see on paper—and the Mustangs are more than happy to surprise their opponents.
While they are young—there are only three seniors on the roster—the Mustangs are a tight knit group that has a wealth of experience playing with each other. That chemistry is something the team lacked last season and led to an 11-14 overall record and a first round exit from the Central Coast Section Division III playoffs after they lost 80-52 to El Camino.
“These guys have been playing together for a long time,” Estorga said. “Last year there was a gap with the seniors and sophomores—there wasn’t that chemistry. These guys are good friends off the court. They hang out on school days and they’re really selfless. They think about their teammates first.”
Gilroy lacks size, though it does have junior Michael Kropff checking in at 6-3. The rest of squad won’t intimate opponents with their height, but instead will rely on its speed.
Four of the Mustangs, including Kropff and junior Connor Doyle, ran cross country in the offseason while their teammates were busy training. The team is confident in its conditioning and will use that to wear its opponents down.
“We’re quick, we have a lot of guards. We have one big guy, but that will help us spread the floor,” junior returner Kevin Azcueta said. “Just as long as we keep the defense on their heels, we’ll be able to get by them pretty quick. We just need to use our quickness.”
“As long as we keep the pace up-tempo, I think we can overcome the weakness that we have,” Doyle added.
Gilroy boasted a 3.0 overall GPA last season and Estorga said he expects the same for the team this year. Their efforts in the classroom, he said, have helped create better decision-making come game time—and that has the coach excited.
“This group is very smart, they’re very disciplined, so I think we’re going to play a better brand of basketball,” Estorga said. “They’re good ball handlers, good decision makers, so I think that’s going to be one of the strengths that we rely on is just making good decisions.”
But not everything has been easy for Gilroy this offseason. The team lost key players Elijah Floyd and Justin Soseman to injury and ineligibility, respectively, and must now work to fill in those gaps.
While those losses hurt the depth of the team and create limitations for it, the Mustangs aren’t worried. The key for Gilroy is not trying to do too much. The team, Estorga said, knows its limits and plays within them which will help prevent errors and turnovers.
“Even though we lost Elijah Floyd to his knee problems I still feel like all four (Kropff, Doyle, Azcueta) of us can rebound very well,” junior returner Bishop Hays said. “Even though we’re small, we rebound very well. We all crash (the boards) and we all know our jobs.”
The Mustangs also have stability this season, returning four of last year’s five coaches as well as bringing 2014 graduates Josiah Wiley and Travis Moulden on as assistants.
Though the squad is dramatically different, the Mustangs’ goals remain the same. With every day, every practice and every drill, they want to continue getting better.
“Even though we’ve had some setbacks, like with some guys hurt, our goal is the same: win league and of course make the CCS playoffs. That’s been our goal since last year,” Kropff said. “I feel like this year, our group together has better team chemistry. Last year it was separate mostly seniors and sophomores. This year, we’ve been playing together for quite awhile so we mesh better.”
The Mustangs kick-off their season with back-to-back games against Harbor at 7 p.m. tonight at home and 7 p.m. Tuesday on the road.
