Cal High men’s basketball team is back with a vengeance after putting last season’s struggles in the rearview mirror.
After going 12-15 last season, the Grizzlies are 22-4 with a league record of 7-2, which is good enough for third in the EBAL.
Cal’s only losses this season have been to Dublin and Foothill in preseason, and San Ramon Valley and Dougherty Valley in league play. But the Grizzlies got their revenge by beating Dublin 61-60 in overtime and Foothill 59-55 in league play later in the season.
The victory over Dublin was the team’s first against the Gaels in 15 years. In their most recent game, the Grizzlies whipped De La Salle 67-48 last Friday night.
The team is led by their two captains, senior point guard Dane Wallace and junior guard/forward Brayde Kuykendall, who are averaging 15.8 and 12.2 points per game, respectively.
“We have the best record so far in school history, and I think we worked really hard as a team to get there,” Kuykendall said.
This is one of the fastest seasons the Grizzlies have reached 20 wins. The last time Cal reached 20 wins was during the 2006-07 season.
In previous seasons, the team had a 62.5% or below win rate. But this season they are heading into NCS with a 86.4% win rate.
Kuykendall and Wallace believe their record is a product of the hard work the team put in during practice and offseason.
“Coming into this season, we all knew that we were going to be good, just all the hard work we were putting in this season,” Wallace said. “I think we all had that expectation that we were going to end up in this position.”
The team practices year round in order to stay consistent in season and off season.
“We lift year round, do a lot of skill development, and then we work on fine tuning the intricacies of the game, offense and defense,” head coach Steve Ohlmeyer said.
Players believe that team chemistry played another important role in its success this season.
“We have really improved over the years and have a lot better team chemistry in years past,” senior guard Harrison Park said.
Wallace said that the goals for the team are to win league and put their team on the map.
The Grizzlies are in prime position to do that when the NCS brackets are announced on Sunday.
Women’s Basketball
After placing second in the NCS Division 1 bracket last season, Cal High women’s basketball team was anticipating another successful season.
So far, this is coming true.
The Grizzlies are 7-2 in league, putting them third in the EBAL. Overall, the team has a record of 17-9.
Despite going 8-7 in preseason, head coach Jeff Rodriguez believes their team was ready for league play.
“We played a really tough schedule, as tough as probably ever in Cal High history,” Rodriguez said.”So it’s got us prepared for the season.”
During preseason, the team dropped games to tough teams including a 51-39 loss to Sidwell Friends, (ranked 12th in the nation) and a 54-48 loss to Saint Francis (ranked 31st in California).
In order to prepare for the season, the team participated in the Sabrina Ionescu showcase at Carondelet High in Concord and the SoCal Holiday Classic in the WNBA premier division. The team also practices three to fives times a week depending on their game schedule.
Senior captains point guard Lauren Yee (11.5 points per game), shooting guard/small forward Sofie Addiego (11.7) and point guard Trinity Chu (11.1) lead the team in scoring this season. All three captains have netted at least 100 3-pointers in their Grizzly career.
Yee said that she was looking forward to gaining momentum through the first couple of league games and hopes to build on that heading into NCS. Cal will know its seeding on Sunday.
“There’s a difference between the good teams and bad teams in our league, so I’m just hoping we can keep our play throughout,” Chu said.
