Atwater star earns CCC top award. Why one coach called the all-league voting a joke
It was a special season for Kelsey Valencia and the Atwater High girls basketball team. The Falcons won their first Central California Conference championship since 1988.
Valencia played a big role for the Falcons, averaging 16.7 points, 8 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 4.8 steals per game.
The coaches noticed and selected Valencia as the CCC Most Valuable Player.
“That little girl works her butt off so much,” said Atwater coach JR Davis, who was named the Coach of the Year. “The things she did for us this year are amazing. She’s a three-year captain, a four-year starter and her basketball IQ sets her apart from everyone else.”
Valencia’s success is a product of hard work.
Her freshman season, Valencia averaged just 4.1 points per game. She elevated that to 12.5 points her sophomore and junior seasons and then to 16.7 this year.
“I hope this says more than anything about the time and work I’ve put in,” Valencia said. “It wasn’t easy. My freshman year I struggled to score. I mean I really struggled.”
Valencia found out she was named MVP when she received a text from Davis.
“I had more of a reaction when he told us he was Coach of the Year,” Valencia said. “I started jumping up and down and I was screaming. My mom wasn’t happy because everyone was already asleep.
“It means a lot to us that he received that honor because I don’t think there is anyone more deserving. I’m biased of course, but the award is not just for him, it’s for our assistant coaches too.”
The all-CCC first team was comprised of Caly Curran (Buhach Colony), Khya Martin (Merced), Lexi Valencia (Atwater), Amaya Ervin (El Capitan), Malaysia Lucero (Golden Valley), Abena Appiah (Patterson) and Kaitlynn Perez (Merced).
The second team selections were Amonia Claiborne (Atwater), Marisa Martinez (Atwater), Sierra Smith (Merced), Cassandra Gutierrez (Buhach Colony) and Jessica Reyes (Atwater).
El Capitan coach Tyler Rogers-Trammell was unhappy with the all-league voting after his team finished second in the league at 10-2 and only received one all-league selection.
“I’ve had parents complain that we only had one all-league player,” Rogers-Trammell said. ‘I did my best to fight for my players but I can’t control how unfortunate the voting was.”
Rogers-Trammell also wasn’t happy Ervin finished fifth in MVP voting after averaging 21.6 points per game in conference play and helping the Gauchos reach the playoffs for the first time in program history. One CCC coach didn’t give Ervin a first-team vote and another coach only gave Ervin one point out of a max of eight points.
“Not to name her first-team all-league is a joke,” Rogers-Trammell said. “I’ve got no problem with Kelsey winning MVP. I’m super happy for her. She worked her butt off and she deserves it. But we have a credibility issue. We’re supposed to be teaching the kids about honesty and being trustworthy.”
Rogers-Trammell feels his players may be taking the punishment for coaches being upset at him about a recent flood of transfers going to El Capitan. The Gauchos had three transfers on their roster this year, including Ervin from Merced. Buhach Colony’s Curran then transferred to El Capitan right after this season.
Rogers-Trammell says he’s not out recruiting players. He said he didn’t find out Ervin was transferring to El Capitan until the day before she arrived on campus.
“I’m not recruiting, but if a player is going to transfer, I’m not going to say no,” Rogers-Trammell said.
This story was originally published February 21, 2019 at 2:36 PM.
