Before joining the Morgan Hill Titans for their inaugural season
this summer, local girls went their separate ways at the end of May
to continue playing basketball
MORGAN HILL
Before joining the Morgan Hill Titans for their inaugural season this summer, local girls went their separate ways at the end of May to continue playing basketball.
They joined NJB and AAU teams outside of Morgan Hill; attended basketball camps at Live Oak and Sobrato high school or with South County Basketball Academy, or just shot hoops on their own.
“I practiced a lot in the garage with my dad,” said Titans center/power forward Courtney Sykes, a Britton Middle School eighth-grader.
Sykes still practices regularly with her father, Dave, but she does so at the Centennial Recreation Center along with several girls she has played with at SCBA since elementary school. They are the first travel team of their kind in Morgan Hill — and they are out to change the city’s landscape of high school girls basketball.
The local varsity programs have had meager success recently, save for Sobrato’s B league title and three straight section playoff appearances from 2007-10. That could change quickly with the addition of the Titans. They play during the offseason of SCBA, thus giving girls a chance to play competitive basketball year-round.
That they mostly play teams comprised of high school players means the middle school-aged Titans will be well prepared for the next level.
“We’re just doing what we can to improve Morgan Hill basketball,” said Dave Sykes, who heads the purple-clad Titans along with Susie Gunther, Randy Furushiro and Sobrato girls basketball coach Terry Smith — all have coached with SCBA. “It’s all about representing Morgan Hill and getting the girls ready for high school.”
Such feeder programs have been the backbone of Morgan Hill’s hallmark sports: baseball, football, soccer, aquatics. Morgan Hill Pony Baseball churns out World Series teams regularly. Last winter, the Morgan Hill Raiders sent a team to the Pop Warner Super Bowl. Soccer has its Orchard Valley League, while softball has two feeders in Pride and Spirit of Morgan Hill. Then there are the swim clubs: the Morgan Hill Makos and Splash. Even a youth wrestling team was organized in Morgan Hill last year, following the buzz from Live Oak’s first league-team championships since 1981 and the program’s addition of coaches Armando Gonzalez, Dan Locsin and heralded freshman Isaiah Locsin.
But basketball? The SCBA has been the local high school teams’ only feeder program, and even SCBA founder and director Jim Green said the academy is limited.
“My program is competitive recreation, and travel ball is more of a time commitment; more money but better competition,” Green said. “I just could never take my model and have it morph into travel ball. They’re different worlds. I’ve encouraged people who have outgrown SCBA to try travel ball, but (I) could never run it.
“I think (the Titans) are incredibly important. I’m glad those coaches stepped up to do it.”
Dave Sykes views the Titans as an extension of Green’s coaching. It is a safe bet any Morgan Hill native who plays basketball learned the game from Green.
“SCBA is a great program, emphasizing team balance and skills development,” Sykes said. “I think it’s just the fact that with these girls; there’s some talent in this town, and it’s something that’s missing in Morgan Hill beyond SCBA’s ability to utilize their talent and get them into a more competitive environment.”
Recruiting girls who are willing to play on a team that could lose by 20 points regularly was easy for Sykes and his staff.
“We’ve been playing a lot of high school girls, and it’s definitely hard. But it challenges us and makes us better,” guard Amy Gunther said. “I like it a lot.”
Through three tournaments, the Titans have won few games but have not lost confidence in themselves or their teammates.
“They’re competing the whole way,” Smith said. “That’s the most important part right now.”
Players agree.
“It’s a lot of fun just playing and pushing yourself,” guard Alea Furushiro said. “It’s a good challenge. They play more intensely than us. I know a lot of the girls on my team can play at that level but not at that intensity yet. We’ll get there.”
The team has usually started eighth-graders Fayth Lyon (point guard), Megan Yabumoto (off guard), Jasmine Sanchez (forward), Courtney Sykes and Gunther, but each of the 16 players has received ample playing time — a plus side to summer vacations. Gunther, a collected, versatile ballhandler with a nice shooting touch, has displayed natural talent, Dave Sykes said, while Lyon has been adept at breaking down pressure with her dribble and smart passing.
True to their size, which rivals that of area high school teams, the Titans’ biggest strength is rebounding. At 5-feet-7, Courtney Sykes has held her own against older posts, as has Peti Saulala, another eighth-grade big.
“All of us have been playing together for a while, so we have a lot of confidence,” Courtney Sykes said. “The first game was a little intimidating, but, as soon as we got that first win (in their second game), we knew we could do it. We just have to be aggressive.”
As long as girls show up to practice with that attitude each summer, Dave Sykes is optimistic for the future of the Titans.
“We’re filling a void here for kids who want to travel out of town and the state,” he said. “If they want to play and get ready for the next level, they can do it here.”
