Girls Hoops Season Preview: Lady Giants look to take nest step

FREMONT – Last March, the Fremont Ross girls basketball team picked up perhaps its most impressive victory in the tenure of coach Juan Vela, who, as the 2018-19 season gets underway, is in his 10th season leading the Lady Giants.

In the district semifinal against TRAC rival Whitmer, a team which had twice defeated Ross during the regular season, the Lady Giants overcame an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit to force overtime then take a 54-51 upset win over the favored Panthers. The win put a cap on a 15-10 season — the Lady Giants’ best record since the 2000-01.

While the victory served notice Ross’ girls program has made strides, Vela wants to make sure his team is looking forward, not behind.

“At the end of the day, it’s not what we did last year or yesterday, it’s about what we’re doing today and what challenges are in front of us that we’re going to respond to,” he said. “Yes, it was a great win, I loved it, it was a big positive for the program, but my thought is today in practice, ‘What are we going to do today to challenge them and improve their skills?’ I want them to be ready for the next challenge. I’d like to have another big win in the future and our job, as coaches, is to get them ready.”

The Lady Giants were ready Friday night for their season-opener, a 60-43 win over Clyde, and Ross tips off its home-opener Tuesday at 7:30 against Sandusky Perkins.

Friday night Ross had four players score in double figures. Balanced scoring is going to be necessary as Ross begins the post-Jazmin Bulger era. Bulger led the TRAC in scoring last season, averaging 17 points a game and was the first Lady Giant named first-team all-conference in over a decade.

“Going into last season, nobody really knew what Jazmin was going to do. We knew she worked on her game but she had a better season than we all thought she was going to have,” Vela said of Bulger. “I feel the same way with this season, I don’t know who’s going to have a big year, but the main part is, I want the girls to understand we have to keep on working and trying to improve on our weaknesses and improve on our strengths, too. Once the ball gets thrown up, I’d love to know what’s going to happen this season, but that’s the joy of it. It’s a big gift but you don’t know what it is until it’s unwrapped.”

As it moves on without Bulger and her penetrating drives to the basket, Ross will have a different gameplan. In order to create shots, the Lady Giants will play more of an inside-out, half-court game. Vela said he expects Ross to use its assets in the paint to open up shots from the perimeter.

Seniors Marissa Overmyer and Jasannah Sabiers, along with Molly Mies, all stand 5-feet-10 or 5-11. Vela expects their rebounding and passing skills to give opportunities to shooters Brooklyn and Olivia Baptista and Rachel Gore.

“(We’ll be a) slow-tempo team this year,” Vela said. “Having three or four post players on the team, we’re going to utilize those players but we have some pretty good shooters, Rachel Gore, Brooke Baptista and Olivia, I think that’s; going to open up some things for our guards. Where last year we opened up lanes for Jazmin who crated shots for everybody else or a layup, this year we’re going to incorporate the post.”

Another key for Ross will be the continuing development of sophomore Brooklyn Baptista. As a freshman, Baptista not only showed an impressive skill set, but an emotional maturity rare in freshman. While Ross kept expectations modest for her as a freshman, with a year of varsity play under her belt, Vela and his staff are looking for her to take the next step.

“Last year we knew she had the skill, the big question was emotionally, will she be able to handle some of the games that we’ll be in? And she did,” Vela said. “Tight games she was making big shots. In tight games, she was making good passes. She never got rattled emotionally and for a freshman, to me, that’s pretty important.

“Her sophomore year we know emotionally how she is and as for her skill level, she looks quicker this year. As for expectations, we want her to keep reaching new highs and we don’t want her to plateau, or stay the same, we need to keep making her uncomfortable in practice to grow as a player.”

Older sister Olivia Baptista will see an increase in ball-handling responsibility, a skillset she displayed throughout last season, along with her 3-point shooting, with which she set a program single-game record with seven 3-pointers against St. Ursula last season.

Above all, Vela said he likes his team chemistry and believes Ross has the intangibles to continue to make strides in and out of the TRAC.

“I have a group of kids who are not afraid to work. I have a group of kids that understand we need to get better, we need to work on our skill level,” he said. “But the main thing is – and I feel like I’ve been repeating myself the last three years – they love working together. It makes team basketball a little easier to teach when they’re sharing the basketball and talking on defense and it’s a tight-knit group and they get along.”