After winning the Consolation Championship, GCC’s Women’s Basketball is excited about making it into the pre-season conference.
With 13 new players out of 15 on the team, the squad is “looking pretty good,” said Women’s Basketball Coach Dyan Miller.
With a 3-2 record, Team Captain Kelly Patterson said, “at first we were not sure where we stood, but we found our groove.”
To make it to the championship, the Vaqueros must beat Victor Valley and L.A. Southwest Colleges.
One of the returning players this year is sophomore Sirushi Demirchyan. At 5 -11, she is the tallest player on the team. “She will play a very big role this semester,” said Miller.
The leading scorer this season is Patterson, who is always on the court. She graduated in the spring from Granada Hills High where she was a top player on the team. “She is a very consistent freshman,” said Miller.
When asked if the team was battling any specific rivals, the coach said, “We’re not geared towards beating any specific teams.”
Last year the games we lost were all very close. Our goal for now is to just win as many games as possible.”
Last season’s team was very different. “We had a seven or eight players and it was a much tighter group,” said sophomore and Team Captain Arpineh Ararat. “A lot of the [new] players just graduated high school and are gaining experience. [Now] we’re gelling and getting better.”
“This season and last season are two totally different types of teams,” said Miller. “We played a much slower setup last season. This season’s style is very up tempo. Our record last year was 18 and 14. We’re improving, and I’m pretty satisfied with the progress of team. We’re doing a lot of closer playing and going through some growing pains. But, we’re getting better every game.”
Many of the team members were stars on their high school teams. Now they have all come together and are committed to team excellence as well as personal growth.
“We’ve reached the next level,” said Denisha McCoy, freshman captain. “We’re in college now and have to bring our playing up a notch.”