Junior Caroline DiGioacchino shoots a jump shot during practice.
Speed, youth, finesse, and collaboration. That sums up the 2013 Aragon Lady Dons varsity basketball team heading into the season. The Dons lost three tall, key seniors from last year’s team in Chanel Joyce, Corie Stocker, and Mana Vaea. In their place, sophomores Briana Reynolds and Maya Collins, as well as freshman Jen Horita, will look to start.
As one of the shorter teams in the league now with the losses of last year’s seniors, the Dons will look to attack their opponents with their quickness. “Our main focus is defense with the hopes that we can pull off a lot of steals to make up for our lack of size,” says senior Christina Garcia-Rovetta.
With one of the fastest teams they have had in years, the Dons are likely to unveil a new style of defense that will utilize their speed. Garcia-Rovetta adds,“Our general attitude is that we’re going to have to work our butts off to stay fast and in shape so that we can keep up with and hopefully out-run teams that would otherwise beat us with their size.”
Compared to other peninsula teams, the Lady Dons are very close with one another. “We have potlucks every Thursday. We are really close with each other,” says senior Kelly Chang. The Lady Dons will try to use this collaboration to propel them into the playoffs.
“We are young, but I expect hard-work and dedication. If they do those things we should be top three and we should go to CCS,” says Head Coach Annette Genarro. The Dons’ first test was on Tuesday, Dec. 10, against Lincoln, too late for coverage in the print edition.
