Roundup: Golden Valley enjoying success in Nava’s first season. Merced keeps winning
Hector Nava is enjoying coaching girls basketball.
The Golden Valley High girls basketball coach spent the past eight years coaching the Merced High boys team. Before that he was coaching the junior varsity boys team at Golden Valley.
The transition to girls basketball has been refreshing for Nava and the Cougars are enjoying some success.
Golden Valley picked up its third Central California Conference win on Thursday night with a 48-35 win over El Capitan at Cougar Arena.
“I’ve been impressed with their attitude, their desire and their willingness to be coachable,” Nava said. “They’ve put so much work into it and now they’re finally seeing it pay off.”
The Cougars are 13-10 this season and 3-4 in the CCC in Nava’s first season.
They’ve already surpassed last year’s eight wins and 2-10 record in the CCC.
Nava gives a lot of credit to his staff, which includes assistant coaches Valerie Moore, Kelley Leonardo and Joel Garcia.
“I have a great coaching staff who all love basketball,” Nava said.
The Gauchos (13-10, 4-3 CCC) struggled against the Cougars’ full-court, zone press all night. The press led to turnovers and made it difficult for El Capitan to get into its offense.
The Cougars jumped out to a nine-point lead early and held El Capitan to just 13 points in the first half as GV took a 19-13 lead into intermission.
“We’ve been working on the press since spring,” Nava said. “It’s finally starting to click for them.”
Charde’ Proctor led the Cougars with 19 points. Isela Gonzalez added 14 points and Emerald Chandler scored 10.
El Capitan was led by Caly Curran and Harmonie Farr, who both scored six points.
Merced 67, Central Valley 13 in Ceres — The Bears stretched their winning streak to 10 games as they improved to 18-3 overall and 7-0 in the CCC.
Amari Stamps led Merced with 12 points and Kaitlynn Perez added 11 points.
Girls Soccer
El Capitan 9, Atwater 0 in Atwater — Anaya Shelton scored five goals and assisted on three others to bring her total to 13 goals in the last three games for the Gauchos.
Haley Espinoza and Stacey Oliveras both added two goals with Espinoza assisting on three others.
The Gauchos improved to 6-0-1 in the CCC.
Wrestling
Golden Valley 42, Merced 27 in Merced — The Cougars extended their winning streak over the Bears to 20 consecutive matches as Golden Valley improved to 23-4 overall and 5-0 in the CCC.
Devin Fagan, Ian Thor, Chance Hose, Willie Ward-Williams, Josh Hickman and Aristeo Prado all recorded victories by pin for Golden Valley.
This story was originally published January 24, 2020 at 2:01 PM.
