Dribbling Into A New Season
Photo of basketballs in cage
December 2, 2022
As the month of December approaches, so does the debut for this year’s Girls Varsity Basketball Team. Since September, the team has been working Monday through Friday, pushing themselves in the weight room and on the court to prepare for the season.
Some of the seniors that had helped to lead this team in past years have graduated and moved on to college which has made this a bit of a rebuilding year for the team.
”We lost a couple (players) that were key parts that started for us,” said Millikan’s head coach and Female Athletics Director, Lorene Morgan.
With the loss of some important assets, other veterans from the team must step up in their absence and help the team charge towards victory. No player has this responsibility more than one of the captains of the team, Jaylen Escobar, an MBA senior.
“As a senior and being team captain, not only do I want to leave my mark on the court, but I want to win, I’m hungry for it,” said Escobar.
With strong leadership from veterans on the team, like Escobar, to push the team and its players to its full potential, there is lots of potential for the group.
Along with strong performances from individual players, it is also very important to make sure that this Girls Basketball team has the ability to work together and that the players can trust each other.
“The varsity team has been practicing together since the end of last season, practicing and working hard, pushing our bodies beyond our limits, playing hard everyday and every game we played in the summer,” said Escobar.
This team has been putting in the work that it takes to win the CIF championship. Hard work and effort pay off in games and are driving factors in having a winning team. The factors for a successful team are there and, if executed well, should push this team to their greatest potential possible.
Come watch Millikan’s Girls varsity team here at Millikan against Wilson on December 14th!
Jaylen Escobar • Feb 2, 2023 at 11:55 am
I really enjoyed reading this article time and time again. Liam Hollan did a great job with this article but as one who he interview, I feel like he should have added much more of what I had spoken about when it came to the rest of the players on the team. I had specifically spoken about how China Duncan (senior) and Emily Piper (junior) will be returning to the court along side with me. We have some young talent Faith Vergara (junior), Saryna Bermudez (sophmore) who are great assets to the team and have stepped up as well in different ways on the court. As for new players joining the varsity team we look forward to some great work coming from our sophmore Amber Rivera and Melody Dith who have grown a huge amount since the start of summer season and would be amazing assets for us. I just wanted to make sure their names were also included as I had spoken in the interview and made their voices heard as well.
Kylan Harvey • Dec 9, 2022 at 9:17 pm
December 9th, 2022
Dear Corydon Editor
Liam Hollon, Assistant Athletic Director wrote an article called “Dribbling Into a New Season” published on December 2. I really enjoyed reading this article because it talked about the interview with the basketball coach and player. It makes the reading feel more interactive, as if I was there having the conversation with them. Something else I really enjoyed about this article is how Jaylen Escobar, Varsity Basketball player, was still aiming to be the best basketball team in the district. I can’t really relate to the text because I dont play sports for the school but I do watch. I also thought that it was sort of a rebuilding year for the team. As I said before, I also enjoyed the article because it was very interactive. The coach had this to say about the team “We lost a couple (players) that were key parts that started for us…” . I like that she was honest about the team, and wasnt sugar coating things as if the team didnt have things to work on. Lastly I would like to say thank you for putting the date for the basketball team’s first game. Thank you so much for your time.
Sincerely,
Kylan Harvey, Grade 11
Lucia Thomas • Dec 9, 2022 at 1:03 pm
On December 2, 2022 Liam Hollon wrote an article entitled “Dribbling Into A New Season.” The article talks about the upcoming girl’s basketball season and how much they have been working. As a player on the Millikan Girls Basketball team, I completely agree with the emphasis on how hard the players have been working and how “hungry” they are to win their games. We are in the weight room and track every morning and practice after school today so we are always working and on the court, ready to win. I love how Liam mentioned how one of the captains on the team Jaylen Escobar has to step up and push the team to work and play harder. Escobar is an amazing asset to our team and does push us to work and be the best we can be. However, I think that Hollon should have interviewed more players on the team and seen their point of views and feelings toward the upcoming season. He mentions the “rebuilding” of the team and I completely agree with this as since we have lost some important senior assets of our team, we have had to come together as a team and really connect in order to have good chemistry on and off the court.
Monique Thomas • Dec 9, 2022 at 10:59 am
Monique Thomas
AP English Period 4
December 9, 2022
Dear Corydn Editor,
On December 2, the article, “Dribbling Into a New Season” was written by author Liam Hollon. The article talked about seniors from the past years that have graduated and left the team. Hollon explains that this years’ 2022-23 season is a year of rebuilding their team with new talent. This resonated with me because I am on the varsity girls golf team at Millikan and my sophomore and now junior year was a rebuilding phase for our team. My freshman year, our whole varsity team was seniors. Once they left to graduate, last year me, team captain and the rest, mostly freshmen and upperclassmen, had to rebuild our whole team and start fresh. This year, we have two new freshmen and a lot of returners. Our two freshmen are really experienced in golf so they were a great addition to the team. At the end of the season, all our rebuilding hard work paid off from the previous year and we won the CIF championship for the first time ever in Millikan history. The quote from Jayleen Escabar about how she is hungry for the win really resonated with me because that is exactly how I felt this year too. This is the mentality we are going to carry into next year and hopefully try to take the league title for the first time ever and beat out our top competition, Wilson High School. Last year we were 3rd in our league and this year we knocked out poly to take 2nd place. We all think we are really capable of beating Wilson. We just have to push ourselves past our limits and stay consistent with practicing so we are ready to beat the Bruins.
Sincerely,
Monique Thomas, Grade 11
Monique Thomas • Dec 9, 2022 at 10:58 am
Dear Corydn Editor,
On December 2, the article, “Dribbling Into a New Season” was written by author Liam Hollon. The article talked about seniors from the past years that have graduated and left the team. Hollon explains that this years’ 2022-23 season is a year of rebuilding their team with new talent. This resonated with me because I am on the varsity girls golf team at Millikan and my sophomore and now junior year was a rebuilding phase for our team. My freshman year, our whole varsity team was seniors. Once they left to graduate, last year me, team captain and the rest mostly freshman and uderclassmen had to rebuild our whole team and start fresh. This year, we have two new freshmen and a lot of returners. Our two freshmen arereally experienced in golf so they were a great addition to the team. At the end of the season, all our rebuilding hard work payed off from the previous year and we won the CIF championship for the first time ever in Millikan history. The quote from Jayleen Escabar about how she is hungry for the win really resonated with me because that is exactly how i felt this year too. This is the mentality we are going to carry into next year and hopefully try to take the league title for the first time ever and beat out our top competition, Wilson Highschool. Last year we were 3rd in our league and this year we knocked out poly to take 2nd place. We all think we are really capable of beating Wilson we just have to push ourselves past our limits and stay consistent with practicing so we are ready to beat the Bruins.
Sincerely,
Monique Thomas, Grade 11
Carter Kopelakis • Dec 8, 2022 at 1:07 pm
Dear Corydon Editor,
On December 2, Liam Holton wrote an article titled ‘Dribbling into a new season”. The article talks about how this is more of a rebuilding year, but the team is still hungry for a championship. Before reading this I knew nothing about the girls basketball team, but now I have more knowledge about the program. Being an athlete myself i can relate to the feeling of being hungry to win and get to work. It is also relatable because our baseball team had 18 seniors leave last year, so now it is mainly juniors and underclassmen that are hungry to get to work. Having hearing this helps me know that many of the other sports here are going through the rebuilding phase that we are, but are also still eager to win a Moore league and CIF championship. Having leadership and people who are ready to get to work is always a positive thing when trying to build a championship team. I liked the quote from Jayleen escobar about stepping up and being hungry to win because it obviously shows that there is established leaders on the team. The Girls Basketball team should be able to have a winning season.
Sincerely,
Carter Kopelakis, Grade 11
Kaitlyn Rollo • Dec 8, 2022 at 12:59 pm
On December 2nd, Liam Hollon wrote an article titled “Dribbling Into A New Season” The article brings attention to the start of the girls basketball season. The article also talks about the lady rams training in preparation for the season this year. Hollon mentions how they practiced everyday Monday through Friday on the court and doing weights. Hollon then starts to go into detail about the players themselves. He starts off with talking about how much of the team last year was seniors and how it was a hard hit when they graduated. Hollon also gets an interview with the captain, Jaylen Escobar, who is a senior this year. I love how he made sure to get a student’s perspective on team dynamics and how they think the team will do this year. I do however wish that there was a mention of some of the other players or getting the opinion of another person on the team. Hollon also did a great job showing that basketball is a team sport. Along with how team chemistry and trust are very important in becoming a successful team. Overall, I think that Hollon wrote an amazing article that helps bring attention to sports not as talked about in newsletters like the 562. It was easy to understand even if you don’t really play basketball.
Faith Vergara • Dec 8, 2022 at 12:58 pm
Dear Corydon Editor,
On December 2, Liam Hollon wrote an article titled “Dribbling into a new season.” The article mentions the debut of the newly rebuilding girls basketball team due to graduating seniors and the amount of work the team had to put in during the off-season. Prior to the article, as someone who is on the team, the girls worked very hard to fill the shoes of our seniors as they were major assets to the team last year. From my understanding, the team still has all Moore league players still playing this year and this team is more tight-knit than the previous years. Jaylen Escobar’s quote was a summary of what any of the girls might say and is relatable. We are all hungry for a better season this year due to games from the previous years since, we felt we could have pulled through with a win. Are there other players stepping up as well? Who are all the seniors this year? Were there players with major improvement? Who are now the people in the starting five? In what areas are they rebuilding? Who will they be playing this year? How will they fill the shoes of the graduated seniors?
Sincerely
Faith Vergara, Grade 11
Jimena Cuevas • Dec 8, 2022 at 11:04 am
On December 2, Liam Hollon wrote an article titled “Dribbling Into A New Season”. The article mentions the start of the season and all the training the girls have been putting in during the off-season. I really enjoyed that Hollon was able to interview the head coach of the Girls Varsity Basketball team as well as the team captain for the team. Team captain Jaylen Escobar expressed the hard work that the entire team has been though in order to prepare themselves to win! As a fellow student athlete, I really admire the hard work that they have put in since the beginning of the school year. With homework and outside of the school activities, the players on this team have dedicated their time to train all together, improving team chemistry. My friend Saryna Bermudez is on the team and everytime I ask her what she’s doing after school, her answer is always “I have a basketball practice/game”. I really liked that Hollon was able to get two different perspectives, one from the coach and the other from a player. Coach Lorene Morgan said that the team has lost a few players that made a big impact on the court, so training with the new players and building a team chemistry is needed to be successful this year. With the teamwork and help of everyone, this team has it to be CIF champs!
Lucas Thorne • Dec 8, 2022 at 10:57 am
Dear Corydon Editor,
On December 2, Liam Hollen wrote an article titled “Dribbling into a New Season”. The article mentions the up comings of the girls basketball team and how they have prepared for the season. He does leave some key answers out however. For example, is the team in a good state or are they falling behind after the loss of key players. Besides that the article is done pretty well. He makes sure to get information from one of the starting players and quotes a few things. He also mentions how they have been preparing with the weight room and daily practice. Is there anything else that they did such as scrimmaging? Are they in preseason? These are some other questions that could arise from the reader. Moving forward he does mention the goal of the team which is to win CIF. Are they planning to win Moore league too or are the other schools teams too difficult. I know this is a lot of questions but these could be answered with just a sentence or two. Overall the article is pretty good and provides a decent amount of information regarding the girls basketball team. It does great on a lot of things but could be so much better with adding a little more information that will clear up the unanswered questions.
Sam Martynec • Dec 8, 2022 at 10:48 am
On December 2nd, Liam Hollon wrote an article titled “Dribbling Into A New Season” The article mentions that this year’s girls basketball team is much younger and doesn’t hold as much experience now that all the seniors from last year have moved on to college. However, it does mention that some of the more experienced girls on the team have stepped up in helping push the team to work as hard as possible to obtain the goal of going on a deep run in the CIF playoffs. As a member of the boys basketball program here at Millikan I can second that having players on your team stepping up and taking on leadership roles goes a long way in a teams success along with the chemistry you build in becoming not just a great team, but a family with relationships going much deeper than the basketball court. That has been something our boys basketball program has been big on which helped lead to the success we had last year in both southern section and state playoffs. Heading into the new season for both programs and after watching a couple of the girls varsity games so far this year, they’ve gotten off to a hot start and truly have the potential to make some noise come playoffs.
Bhree Walker • Dec 8, 2022 at 10:02 am
This article talks about how the Millikan girls’ basketball team has worked really hard to do well in this season. They have practiced a lot, worked out a lot, and tried really hard to step up for the seniors who have gone. I do hope all their hard work pays off because they really do deserve it. And I do believe that they will do good this season because I’ve seen them play and work really hard. A few questions I have are: What other positions have team members had to take in order to fill in the gap of team members who have gone? Have these new positions caused the team to be better or worse? Also, how could one join the team before the next season? This article has been really inspiring because Millikan hasn’t felt the same since the seniors were gone, and I know it’ll feel the same when this year’s seniors are gone. Knowing that teams like the girls basketball team can still carry on despite these changes is very inspiring. Thank you for writing this article.
Jason Parra • Dec 8, 2022 at 9:58 am
Dear Corydon Editor,
On December 2nd , Liam Hollon wrote an article titled “ Dribbling into a new season” The article is about this year’s high school girls basketball team and what they are looking to do this season. Although the author explained that there are some key players that graduated this year and the roster has to look to new veterans to lead the way for this team. I would like to know more about the entire team. It does a good job of explaining the goals and the mindset of the captain of the team Jaylen Escobar it does not depict the goals of other individuals and only shines light on one singular athlete. I think there should have been at least one of two more individuals that are on varsity to share their opinion about the upcoming season. It depicts the overall goal of the entire team and what they want to accomplish which is a CIF Championship. It describes the loss of seniors which is always a setback when it comes to building a championship level team. It is also important when trying to help the audience understand how hard it is to win when they have different kids from the years before. Other than not so many individual opinions the article is very well written and it gives a nice short summary of the upcoming basketball season.
Koby Thurmond • Dec 8, 2022 at 9:48 am
December 8, 2022
Dear Corydn Editor,
On December 2, Liam Hollon wrote an article titled “Dribbling Into a New Season.” I really enjoyed reading this article because it mentioned how seniors from the past years have left and that this season is for rebuilding. This stuck with me because I am on the boys lacrosse team for Millikan and this is a rebuilding phase for us also. We had 13 seniors leave last year and they were the backbone of our team. This year we have 40 new freshmen on the team. 35 of these 40 freshmen have never played the sport before, so we have our work cut out for us. I also liked the quote in the article from Jayleen Escabar about how she is eager to get the win this season. I like it because it shows that even though it is a rebuilding season, they still strive for the number one spot. This is the mentality that the boys lacrosse team has also. Last year we were undefeated in our league and this year we are striving for the same thing. We have been practicing early in the mornings and on weekends to make sure we get in as much practice as we can before the spring season starts.
Sincerely,
Koby Thurmond, Grade 11
Max Schlafke • Dec 8, 2022 at 9:30 am
On December 2, Liam Hollon wrote an article titled “Dribbling into a new season”. This article mentions that the girls varsity basketball season is going to start soon and that players have been putting in the work inside and outside of the gym to prepare. Veteran players are now needed to start and lead the team to victory. They lost many starters this past year due to graduation and people needed to replace them. Prior to reading this article I had no idea that the girls basketball season was starting. I think it is very good that someone is bringing the spotlight to a subject like this. I feel girls’ sports should be talked about more and this article did a great job doing just that. I think that this article has been written very thoughtfully. The subject you chose to write about was definitely a very good topic to write on because I feel that they do not get enough praise although they have been doing really well. How many players are on this year’s girls varsity basketball team? How many players did the girls basketball team lose due to graduation? How many games is the basketball team playing in this year’s season?
Aiden Ankley • Dec 8, 2022 at 9:23 am
On December 2nd Liam Hollon wrote an article titled “Dribbling Into A New Season.” The article talks about the Millikan girls varsity basketball team and their hope for a successful season. I was never really sure how good our girls basketball team was but after seeing this article it seems that the whole team really has a heart for the game. Even more so they all want to win. The team really seems to have a strong base and good leaders to help build up the team’s chemistry. Even with the loss of many important senior players others have stepped up to fill their roles. It is awesome to see fellow students dedicated to their sport, and making it their passion to get better. This team environment is what I hope to see next year for the boys water polo team. Throughout the article they put quotes from the team’s captain, this showed me how strong the dedication to the sport some players have. Team captains really represent the whole team and when you have a strong one you know your team is in good hands and will succeed. I am excited to see how far the girls varsity team get and hope to see them as CIF champions.
Trey Culwell • Dec 8, 2022 at 9:14 am
On December 2, Liam Hollond wrote an article titled “Dribbling Into a New Season”. This article mentions that the girls basketball team is starting their 2022 season and it explains that they have been working hard to do well this season. I really like how you explain how the team lost some key players from last year and how there are new people to set up and fill their shoes. This article really shows the amount of work that a lot of these players have done and they are ready to win a lot of games. I like the photo you added of the basketball getting shot into the net. I like how you quoted what the team captain said, this really showed that she is here to win and she is ready to lead the team to a CIF championship. Talking about the girls’ teamwork and how each player individually is strong really shows that the team has a chance of going far and doing very well this season. With the varsity team working together since the end of last season, they will be able beat many teams. Thank you for writing this article about the Girls Basketball team.
Madeleine Napalan • Dec 8, 2022 at 9:13 am
On December 2, Liam Hollon wrote an article titled “Dribbling Into A New Season.” The article talks about this upcoming season for girls’ basketball. It mentions the loss of key seniors from last year but also talks about players stepping up and the team working harder than ever to get into the right place to win the CIF championship. It also has key people like Coach Lorene Morgan and Captain Jaylen Escobar talking to give you a sense of how these two different people are feeling about the upcoming season. I think a great factor that you put into this was what the coach said and also one of the captions. I think next time what also could be added is one of the lower classmen talking about the leadership they have had. I think another good thing was the last paragraph talking about how the team’s hard work and effort will pay off in the end. I think also next time you could add the game schedule for them and also a picture of the team, so then we can see who they are. Also, I think you can add more about the time and effort they all put in to get where they are now, like having some players comment on the offseason and what they did.
Evan Zes • Dec 8, 2022 at 9:10 am
On December 2 Liam Hollin wrote an article titled “Dribbling into a New Season” The article states that “‘We lost a couple (players) that were key parts that started for us,’ said Millikan’s head coach and Female Athletics Director, Lorene Morgan. With the loss of some important assets, other veterans from the team must step up in their absence and help the team charge towards victory. No player has this responsibility more than one of the captains of the team, Jaylen Escobar, an MBA senior.” During my last season on the water polo team, we lost a total of 12 seniors. It was a rough season, but it was a blast. I commend this team for working hard through a big loss. Also, as a team captain for the varsity water polo team, I know what it is like to bear the responsibility of being the backbone of the team. I give her major props for stepping up to this challenge, and wish the whole team the best of luck this season. This article was fantastic and has properly brought me up to speed about how our girls basketball team is preparing for the season, so that they can represent us Millikan Rams.