Varsity Forward Justin Barnachea (right) has possession of the ball. The Trojans fought hard against Monterey High School but fell 50-73.
By: Maira Ramos
With the start of the new season for the Varsity Basketball teams come new challenges, goals, and opportunities for success. According to Boys Varsity Basketball Coach Clarence Wrencher, the boys varsity team has had changes that will help them be more competitive.
The boys varsity team has grown in size and has more players that can contribute, Wrencher said. Having more people play will help the team keep their endurance throughout each game, he added.
“We didn’t have a lot of depth last year, and that hurt us a lot,” Wrencher said. “I think we finished the season with maybe nine people, and this year we’re fifteen strong, and quite a few of those players are strong players.”
Varsity Boys Point Guard Aaron Tumber said that there is a lot of good chemistry among the team since many of them have played together for a long time. Although the team can improve on their communication during games, they are strong defensively, he said.
“I feel that we can all play multiple positions,” Tumber said. “Everybody can guard every position, so it’s easy to play anything.”
According to Wrencher, attendance at the games is much lower now compared to games when he started coaching in the late 1990s. The gym was reasonably full back then, he said.
“It would be really good to see more people at our games,” Wrencher said. “We play a lot of schools on the west side of the valley, [so] we run into hostile territory because they have a lot of fans and students at their games. Then here, we don’t have that, we don’t match it. We lose our home court advantage.”
Varsity Girls Point Guard Allyson Hom said that the girls varsity team has new players and they are all trying to learn and adjust to playing with each other. They also have a new head coach, Tyrone Monroe, she said.
“Some people may not like [his coaching style],” Hom said. “But he pushes you in a way where it’s out of more support than out of harshness, as some people might say.”
The team’s strength is already having basic basketball knowledge, Hom said. They all know of the fundamentals and are working to build on them, she said.
“An expectation [for this season] would probably be to hopefully win league,” Hom said. “That’s one of our goals as a team.”