San Lorenzo Valley looked primed at the start of the 2024-25 winter campaign after it strung together a three-game win streak going into December.
But now they find themselves headed in the wrong direction following a two-game skid, including a 63-57 loss to St. Francis in non-league play Dec. 10.
“It’s tough out there playing against some of these other guys that are good, but we want to compete, try our hardest and whatnot,” said SLV senior Noah Steiger, who had a team-best 18 points that evening. “It kind of just went downhill a little bit. We try to keep the game alive as much as we can, but fouls are a big problem.”
Cougars first-year head coach Bill Ciancio said every time they seemed to gain momentum they turned the ball over. It wasn’t just one out of three or four possessions, it was multiple possessions in a row—and it seems to be a constant issue this season.
Ciancio also mentioned getting outrebounded by the Sharks did not help with opportunities for second chance points.
“Our emphasis was the boards tonight, so I’d say a combination of multiple back-to-back-to-back turnovers, and then the boards really, really hurt us,” Ciancio said.
Ciancio does give the boys credit for having a lot of heart. However, he believes the main thing hurting the Cougars this season is inconsistency at practice.
“We probably have four or five guys that have been to every practice, but they seem to rotate being in practice for whatever reason,” he said. “That seems to hurt our momentum a little bit.”
One of the starting players was sidelined for last week’s game against St. Francis because of an ankle injury and another one didn’t show up for a prior game.
“I just don’t have any continuity in personnel,” Ciancio said. “The guys that are showing up are giving everything they can, and we just don’t have the experience.”
Steiger said some areas he’d like to improve is playing smarter on defense, and avoid picking up unnecessary fouls as he did against St. Francis.
SLV also lost the turnover battle, especially down the stretch when the game was on the line.
“But I think we’re pretty solid, overall,” Steiger said.
Steiger and fellow teammates, juniors Lonan Dickinson, Wyatt Himmelstrup and Ian Patrick LeBarre, are attempting to execute a run and gun style of basketball this season.
Down the road, Stegier said he’d like to see the 3-point shot come into play because as of late they’ve been hitting from beyond the arc during practice.
“We don’t have a lot of big men, so [we] have the little guys that can just run around and score,” Steiger said. “We got a bunch of shooters on the team.”
The Cougars are a young squad with lots of room to grow, Steiger said. He is the lone senior on the team that features five juniors: Dickinson, Maddix Gambero, Himmelstrup, LeBarre and Anton Nite; two sophomores: Caelen Alsing and Everett Callendar; and a pair of freshmen in Caleb Cox and Jesse Fulkerson.
One of Steiger’s goals is to help guide the younger players and show them the ropes of playing at the varsity level. He said his teammates are extremely tenacious and bring tons of energy to the locker room.
“I just want to see them progress,” Steiger said. “I’ll probably come out next year and the year after that to see how they play.”
Steiger mentioned how he enjoys playing in a fast-paced offense under Ciancio, who has more than 40 years of experience coaching basketball.
“I like the plays [Ciancio’s] running, everything we’re doing. How hard he’s working us in practice,” Steiger said. “But overall, he’s a really good coach and I like having him around. I wish I could have another year with him.”
Ciancio put together a successful pair of programs coaching at Rancho Verde and La Quinta high schools in the mid ’90s and early 2000s. He then joined Aptos from 2018-23, where he became an assistant football coach, junior varsity basketball coach and lacrosse head coach.
Ciancio was brought on board this season after Daryl Nounnan stepped down at the end of the 2023-24 season.
SLV finished with a 12-15 overall record and a trip to the Central Coast Section Division IV playoffs this past season. They placed fifth in the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League standings after going 1-9 in league play.
“I’m not promising anything for SLV,” Ciancio said in an interview prior to the beginning of the season. “Our team will be as good as the kids and I have the plan. The kids have the legs, and if they want to play our game plan, we have a good shot at surprising a lot of people this year.”
Ciancio said he gave his kids a motto: “We practice what we’re going to play in the games.” The winter season is still young for the Cougars, who had a break before entering the final stretch in the preseason portion of their schedule.
SLV hosts Westmont in non-league action Friday at 7pm, followed by another non-league contest at Gilroy on Saturday at 2pm. The Cougars tip off the SCCAL season at home against Soquel on Jan. 14 at 7pm.
Steiger said the rest of the league, which includes Aptos, Harbor, Scotts Valley and defending champion Santa Cruz, has always been a challenge. But he’ll be ready to play his hardest no matter the competition.
“They’re gonna be hard teams. They have good, big players. I’ve played with them before and I’ve been playing them all my life,” Steiger said. “I know what to expect, but we gotta go out there and let the team know I got their back, they got my back. We all got each other.”
