The 7th grade girls’ basketball team at Scotts Valley Middle School triumphantly won the Central Coast Athletic League Championship last week on Oct. 15.
This is the second year in a row that the team has won the League Championship.
The girl’s basketball season began in early September and will end this week on Wednesday — with the final tournament being held at New Brighton Middle School.
To clinch the league championship, the 12-member basketball team defeated Shoreline Middle School by a score of 51-29 last Wednesday, said the team’s coach Greg Giguiere. “They were excited to win, I think they are looking forward to the tournament this week — they also want to win the tournament as well,” Giguiere said. “That is their next goal.” Giguiere’s daughter, Ella, is a member of the team.
“We have fun playing and we are serious at the same time,” she said.
Together, the team prepares for winning by talking, spending time together, and reviewing plays with the coach, Ella explained.
Point guard Mikayla Ratto Coogan described the experience as both fun and hard.
“We practiced our hardest, and we just kind of focused a lot,” Ratto Coogan said of the big win.
Another team member, Kylie Clouse, said that the team has taught her how to work together as a group to achieve a common goal.
“I do want to thank my team for giving me such a wonderful experience in my 7th grade season and I could not have done that without each and every one of them,” Clouse said. “Everyone was nervous because we really wanted to win … when we started to get our score up it all came fluently.”
The CCAL championship game began at 3:45 p.m. and lasted approximately 28 minutes. By the end of the second quarter, the team’s score had more than doubled, Giguiere said. “All 12 girls on the team definitely contributed to each one of our wins and without all twelve of them it wouldn’t be a successful season.”
