Atwater building winning legacy in girls basketball with another conference title
Hanging in Atwater High’s new gymnasium is a huge banner that reads: “We are Atwater.”
It’s the placement of the banner that had Falcons girls basketball coach JR Davis jokingly wondering if Atwater’s new athletic director Nelson Medeiros was a believer in the school’s girls basketball program.
The “We are Atwater” banner hangs directly under the list of years the girls basketball team has won CCC championships.
“Our goal is to make him have to move that banner,” Davis said.
The banner might have to find a new location after the Falcons clinched back-to-back CCC championships with a 63-37 win over El Capitan on Thursday night. The win improves Atwater’s record to 18-7 overall and 10-0 in the CCC. The Falcons have now won three of the past four CCC championships.
The Falcons have dominated the CCC this season, winning all 10 games by 10 points or more. In fact, Atwater’s average margin of victory has been 27.5 points in the CCC victories.
Davis has the program rolling.
The CCC is a conference that has seen Golden Valley, Merced and Buhach Colony all rise to the top in the past two decades. The Falcons are now the team on top.
Atwater has won 20 consecutive conference games and has compiled a 39-3 record in the CCC the past four years.
This year’s team is led by seniors like Aliene Lopez, Mariela Fernandez, Jordyn Allison and Maya Manzanares.
Lopez scored 20 points against El Capitan and recently surpassed 1,000 career points. Fernandez caught fire in the second half, draining three 3-pointers in the third quarter and finished with 16 points against the Gauchos.
Allison added 13 points and Manzanares was big inside snatching rebounds and playing defense.
“It means a lot winning another championship,” Allison said. “We want to carry on our legacy from last year. Last year we didn’t get to celebrate too much because of COVID. It’s nice to have our friends and family in the stands this year. We can celebrate more with them.”
The future of the program is bright with four freshmen also playing up on the varsity team. The influx of young talent has helped the Falcons gain experience early so they can take over key roles in the future.
Davis says the key to Atwater’s success was starting an AAU team for middle school girls that would be coming to Atwater so they can learn fundamentals and learn the Falcons system.
“We’ve developed players at a young age,” Davis said. “When I first started in 2011 I quickly realized some of our girls didn’t know how to jump stop. It’s taken a while. At first I was coaching the young kids myself and I was running myself ragged. Now we have coaches for the AAU team.”
Players are learning Atwater’s full-court press when they are in seventh and eighth grade. They know where they are supposed to be on the court. They’re practicing fundamentals before they get to high school.
That’s how you get four freshmen like Andrea Sandoval, Karissa Hukill, Vianey Hernandez and Jolie Hart ready to contribute at the varsity level.
The older players also are ready to take mentor roles because they remember being the young freshmen learning from former senior players.
Davis says Lopez often stays after practice for two hours working with the freshmen players.
“I hope my experience can help them and they can learn from me like I learned from other players,” Lopez said. “It’s like paying it forward. We have to get them ready because they are our next team.”
With so many players are around the program since they were in middle school, close bonds are formed within the team. It also helps that Davis has had the same core of assistant coaches for over a decade.
The players also know they are expected to put in work.
“This is a year-round sport for us,” Allison said. “We bust our butt running those miles in the offseason.”
All the work makes the victories so rewarding. The Falcons want to continue the winning streak and are focused on finishing the season 12-0 in the CCC.
“That’s a big goal,” Lopez said. “We want to finish undefeated again in league.”
The Falcons plan to continue hanging up CCC championships on the gym wall.
