As basketball season is fast approaching, we decided to catch up with Rio Hondo Women’s basketball head coach Steve Johnson to get some insight about the upcoming season. The ’12-’13 team will have a new look. Seven of the ten players this year are new additions to the team. Out of those seven, six of them are straight out of high school, and one is a transfer student. These new additions along with the three returning players will be looking to improve on the team’s overall record of 7-19 and 2-12 in the Foothill conference.
The coaching staff is looking for big contributions from returning starting point guard Aurora Torres whose 11.6 points per game average in conference play last season ranked 9th overall. They are also excited about freshman Bianca Garcia who was recruited from Bell High School. When asked about his expectations for this season, Coach Johnson stated “Conference play is always very tough. We play in a very difficult conference, but I think we’ll be do fine as a team.”
Although wins and losses are the way most sports teams are judged, Coach Johnson says there’s more to college athletics than a team’s record. The philosophy that Johnson tries to instill in his team is that “everything matters.” He believes that if the players genuinely care about everything they do, from academics to home life, it will carry over to basketball. Helping players transfer to a university is also a top priority.
When asked about what Coach Johnson would like the Rio Hondo community to know about the team, he stressed the importance of supporting not just the Women’s basketball team, but all of the school’s athletics programs, “It’s important for these young players to see their administrators, their teachers, come out and support them. They feel better about themselves, and it allows them (teachers, administrators) to see the student-athlete in a different light.”
The team started official practice on Oct. 1st in preparation for their first set of games at the San Diego Mesa Tournament which runs from Nov. 9th-11th.
