The Girls Varsity Basketball team currently has an 18-9 overall record and 7-3 league record. After all of their games so far, the Lady Rams ended up as the runner-ups of the Rio Hondo League.
The Lady Rams’ most recent match against their self-proclaimed rivals, the La Cañada Spartans, who previously beat them 58-46 on Jan. 10, ended with a 56-44 loss on Jan. 31.
Two days later on Feb. 2, the team defeated the Blair Vikings 65-7 at an away game.
On Feb. 6, the Lady Rams lost 40-37 against the South Pasadena Tigers at another away game.
The team’s senior home game on Feb. 8 against Monrovia ended their league season with a 68-42 win.
While the Lady Rams have a chance of qualifying for CIF playoffs, the official status was not confirmed until a statement was released on Feb. 11.
As league ends and as the possibility of entering CIF stands, Head Coaches Sean Black and Florence Lee, as well as Team Captains Senior Penelopi Trieu and Junior Jillian Takemura, have been helping the team progress on the court. As a team of young athletes, they have several disadvantages.
“We are a very hard-working team,” Coach Lee said. “Compared to most basketball teams, we are probably one of the shorter teams out there, so that means in basketball we have to work harder than most because other teams tend to be taller and bigger. Overall, everyone works really hard and that’s how we are able to succeed, really, of our hard work.”
Several team members have experienced injuries throughout the season, reducing the number of available players. During the season, four athletes were injured. Takemura suffered a broken wrist, Trieu tore her posterior cruciate ligament and partially tore her anterior cruciate ligament, Junior Ivonne Garcia sprained her ankle and Senior Jacquie Poon sprained her knee.
Thus, the Varsity team will be recruiting JV athletes for its replacements, which will also give the recruitees an experience of being on the Varsity team.
“We’re a young team,” Trieu said. “We have a lot of inexperienced people, and it shows in a lot of our games against harder opponents. However, I feel like with each failure we experience, we also gain a lot of knowledge.”
In the end, the Lady Rams are a group of individuals who do not let their flaws and mistakes hold them back but instead, continue to develop their offensive and guarding strategies and their ability to execute three-pointers, a tactic they have been improving on since the beginning of the season.
“I think we’ll use this experience to motivate ourselves to play harder and smarter,” Takemura said. “We’ll move on from our loss, but we won’t forget it.”
TCHS School Newspaper