GILROY – Heather Stewart and Kaden Bahner have one obvious thing
in common. Both are in charge of establishing the foundation for a
basketball team at Christopher High School.
GILROY – Heather Stewart and Kaden Bahner have one obvious thing in common. Both are in charge of establishing the foundation for a basketball team at Christopher High School.
Building a program from the ground up creates a variety of obstacles and challenges. But for Stewart, the head coach for the junior varsity girls, and Bahner, head coach for the junior varsity boys, that process has already become one of success.
“We have tremendous staff support for athletics,” Bahner said. “Communication between us and the administration has been great. That is really, really needed as a first-year coach.”
The Lady Cougars, who began their season at the Leland Tournament on Thursday night, have just three sophomores on their 14-player roster.
“My focus is building these kids up as fundamental players,” Stewart said. “I want everybody to have the ability to do everything. This group of kids is my kind of kids. They have great attitudes and their work ethic is good.”
A concern about whether there would be enough kids to form two teams on the boys’ side was just one of the hurdles Bahner had to face in the early part of the
journey.
“We are fortunate that we will be able to field two teams in our very first year,” Bahner said. “In the long run that is going to really help the development.”
The Cougars JV squad will have 11 players suiting up each game while the freshman will have 13 on its bench, which will be manned by Justin Ponzio.
The Cougars got their first taste of high-school action in the opening round of the San Lorenzo Valley Tournament, facing Aptos on Thursday.
Led by a nine-point effort from sophomore point guard D.J. Campos, CHS fell short in its debut, 59-40.
“They played hard and left everything on the floor,” Bahner said after the game. “We had too many turnovers and (Aptos) took advantage of it.”
Freshman Andrew Foster and sophomore Peter Hilkene each had six points for the Cougars and freshman Travis Hill had five.
CHS was able to cut Aptos’ lead to eight with six minutes left to play, Bahner said, before a late 10-2 Aptos run sealed the Cougars’ fate.
“I was really happy with the way they played effort-wise,” Bahner said. “At this point in the season I expect that we are going to have a few turnovers and some guys are going to be in positions they aren’t used to. But those things will work themselves out.”
Results for the Lady Cougars’ game were unavailable at press time. Updates for both tournaments will be provided throughout the weekend and will be included in Tuesday’s edition of the Dispatch.
