One of the best sports teams at Granada, the varsity basketball team, is starting another season. The team has consistently produced Division I scholar-athletes like Tyler Harris, Andrew Mckeever, Navaughn Long, Kevin Gad, and Cortevious Taylor. The team is led by head coach Marcels Clay, who is new this year. The team has had many changes this year, as tons of seniors from last year graduated. The team is looking to build on their marvelous record from the previous year which was 8-1.

So far, the team has played 7 non-league games, winning 3 of them. The roster this year consists of Brandon Hahn, Andrew Lawson, Damien Miles, Seth Downey, Landon Flanigan, Sebastian Terrel, Yuval Kringel, Brooks Rayford, Ethan Tai, Justin Turner, Hanrong Zhang, Ethan Mitchell, and Cordell Taylor. The main change is the new head coach, Celly, while Mr. Hahn remains.

Last week, the team played Placer at Vacaville High School, losing narrowly 53-59.

When asked about the game, Andrew Lawson said, “ Our strong point was our ability to get the ball down the court rapidly and keep up our stamina throughout, but we needed some work on your passes as we had a decent amount of balls stolen from us”.

Transfer student Landon said, “The sportsmanship of the Granada team is far greater than Logan High, and he saw the difference at the game against Placer.” When asked about his strong points he said, “ He excels at defense and loves blocking the ball as it’s satisfying.” We also interviewed Brandon Hahn who had 25 points, “We were definitely the better team, but just needed to use our height and athleticism more efficiently and we were also missing a couple of guys that made us playoff, but this isn’t an excuse and we will keep working”.

     Coach Celly was also interviewed after the game and explained, “I liked the boys is determination and mindset, and the game was ours if we played how we did in the last few minutes, the whole game. We need to fight against adversity better as a team and communicate effectively.”

Coach Celly said that he does not doubt that the team is going to ball out this year because of many players who are stepping up as real leaders and helping out their teammates get better.

“I constantly have guys holding open gym sessions even when we have off days showing this team’s determination to do better and be the best versions of themselves”. 

Come check out your matadors at their next home game on December 19 against Cardinal Newman at 8:30 pm.