GILROY—The Gilroy girls basketball team hung up a new banner in the gym last season after winning the Monterey Bay League-Pacific Division title. With the title comes a promotion to the hyper-competitive Gabilan Division, but the Mustangs aren’t worried.
“I feel the pressure, but the pressure helps us to work harder,” said returning sophomore Jackie Morales. “I think it’s going to be a tough season, but a good one.”
Last year, Gilroy had a Cinderella season under the direction of new coach Mitchell Pierce. The Mustangs weren’t necessarily viewed as a contender, but surprised their opponents and finished 16-9 overall and 11-1 in league. It was their first league title since 2011, which helped them earn a Central Coast Section Division III playoff berth. Unfortunately for Gilroy, the buck stopped there as it fell 37-28 to Burlingame in the first round.
The Mustangs are joining a league filled with high-caliber opponents such as Christopher, Hollister and North Salinas—who won the CCS Division I crown and reached the California Interscholastic Federation state playoffs, but was eliminated by Santa Rosa in the first round. They will be without Brianna Barron and Leilani Mah who were key pieces to last year’s title team.
Even so, the only sweating Gilroy is doing is at its practices. The Mustangs, especially returners Morales, Nia Pollard, Adina Valencia and Andrea Gracia, had beads of sweat streaming off their heads during Tuesday’s practice—a physical symbol of this year’s theme.
“Commitment is a big word that we’re using this year,” Pollard said. “I think we’re going to be working two times harder since we moved up.”
Looking at the Mustangs, it’s clear they don’t have much in the size department. But what they lack in height, Piece said they make up in speed. They will, however, get back Maddy Cox, a stellar sophomore who will add size to the team when she rejoins it at the conclusion of the field hockey season.
“We’re smaller and I think that could be a weakness, but we definitely got faster,” Pierce said. “Hopefully we can develop some chemistry, so we can get our game going. I think we definitely picked up on our speed.”
Gilroy will also have veteran leadership with five members of last year’s team returning. As the team’s only senior, Gracia knows she has a big leadership role and even bigger shoes to fill given the impact last year’s seniors had on the program.
“I think that with all the seniors that left us, we have a lot of work to do,” she said. “We have to set the bar high for ourselves. We have to set it higher than it was before.”
The Mustangs have several new faces joining the squad, too. Having been in that position last year, sophomore Valencia stressed the importance of team chemistry.
“I think the main expectation is for us to be working as a team—teamwork is important and all of us uniting as one when we go out and play a game,” she said. “Consistency when we play (is important), too; just bumping up our level when we play.”
The Mustangs open their season against Gonzales at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 1 at home. They will then host the Mustang Classic Dec. 4-6. Gilroy will get its first taste of its new league at 7 p.m. Jan. 6 when it takes on Salinas.
