Basketball at the junior high level in Winnemucca is hard.
The eighth-grade boys basketball team team had tryouts the Oct. 20 and 23. Since then the Warriors have had two kids out with the flu and miss practice for almost a week. One player sustained a broken nose during practice and missed at least one game.
Winnemucca is just a week into the competitive part of the season and have traveled close to 1,000 miles by bus to play in Fallon, Carson and Fernley. None of those schools will travel to Winnemucca to play, so the Warriors have to go on the road to play competitive basketball. Winnemucca is 3-2 to start the season.
“I am okay with it.,” said coach Todd Milton. “I am very proud of the way the guys have come together in a short time to compete.
Winnemucca opened the year on Nov. 1 with a 39-31 win at Fallon. The Warriors shot 35 percent from the field and played well as a team Giovani Sapien was the team leader in field goal percentage and played very aggressively when he had the ball in his hands.
Zach Fernandez led the team in free throw percentage and did a great job playing the point guard position for a majority of the game also leading the team in assists.
Winnemucca traveled to Carson City on Nov. 3 to play both of their middle schools back-to-back in a doubleheader. The Warriors split the games, losing to Carson Middle school 44-20 and beating Eagle Valley Middle School in the second game 33-20.
Carson had a couple of kids that shot the lights out from the 3-point line. According to coach Milton.
“It seemed wherever they shot from it went in.” added the coach. “We came out hard and were within four points at halftime but we were not able to sustain the energy during the second half. We were out coached and I will take full responsibility for the loss. The kids did a great job, but I don’t feel that I had them as prepared as I should have.”
During the Eagle Valley game, the boys came back and played very well. Winnemucca out rebounded Eagle Valley 29-17. The team was led by Cal Peters with seven rebounds for the game. Enoc Gaitan and Damian Zaragoza both came off of the bench and contributed offensively for the win.
“I was very proud of the way we did not let the loss to Carson hamper the way we came and played against Eagle Valley,” Milton said. “We outscored them 10-0 in the second quarter after being down by a point at the end of the first quarter and we never looked back.”
Winnemucca made its home debut on Nov. 5 and beat Lovelock 36-3.
“You would not have known that the kids had played two games the night before in Carson and arrived back in Winnemucca less than 11 hours prior to our 10 a.m. game the next morning,” Milton said. “I am looking for our guards to step up and be able to handle the ball when Zach needs a blow and I am starting to see who can do that. Ayden Katzenmeyer, Wyatte Sakurada had the opportunity to play the point guard position and they performed admirably.”
The coach added that the a large deficit in the score allowed Winnemucca to work on the different things without a lot of pressure. Milton noted that all the guys want to get better and all of them take the game seriously no matter what the score is.
“That is why I feel this group will succeed when they get to the next level as freshmen at Lowry,” said the coach.
Winnemucca was back on the road on Nov. 8 and lost 39-32 to Fernley.
Fernley pressured Winnemucca the entire game and jumped out to a 13-2 lead. However, the Warriors regrouped and led in the third quarter.
Winnemucca shot 45 percent from the field as a team, which is its best performance to date.
“We just ran out of energy and were not able to sustain the lead,” Milton said. “Drew Harmon broke his nose on Monday (Nov. 6) during practice and was not able to play on Wednesday (Nov. 8). We missed his physicality and leadership against a very physical team. What I did like was how well our posts are playing together.”
Ismael Magana, Dillon LaRose and Peters shared time at the post positions and are all really getting into a grove on both ends of the court. According to the coach.
Magana led the team in field goal percentage and LaRose led the team in free throw percentage. Kaiden Boyles and Iysis Arrioal both came off of the bench in Fernley and played very well. The coach added they hustled and worked very hard when they were on the floor.
“I keep preaching to these guys that it is not just about points scored,” Milton said. “There is so much more to the game than points. They all are beginning to understand that. This eighth-grade group is a great group of kids and they all just want to get better. They are getting better every day.”
Winnemucca travels to Lovelock on Friday for a 3 p.m. contest.
