SBCC hopes to sprint past the competition in the 2010-11 women’s basketball race.
The Vaqueros don’t return a single starter from last year’s 19-12 edition that placed second in the WSC North (10-2) but there’s plenty of experience and talent.
“Team speed,” said seventh-year coach Sandrine Krul when asked about her squad’s strengths. “Even our post players can take a rebound and start the break. The biggest thing is not turning the ball over. We’re so fast that we’re always trying to push, push, push. We need to learn when to run and when not to.”
Santa Barbara opens its campaign on Friday at the Mission Santa Clara Tournament against Porterville at 4 p.m. The home opener is Nov. 13 against Sequoias.
The Vaqueros are seeking their sixth straight playoff berth. Krul, the WSC North Coach of the Year last season, is 120-70 overall and 54-18 in the WSC.
The top returners are Lindsay Bergus, Janelle Wong (Dos Pueblos High), Imelda Bealer, Jennifer Stevens and 6-3 Leigh Cullinan.
Leslie Steele, a 5-7 guard, is one of the top newcomers along with guard Nanice Kollee, a transfer from Moorpark College, 5-11 Mercedes Gonzalez and 5-10 Brooke Armenta.
Krul said the starters will be Steele at the point, Bealer at shooting guard, along with Kollee, Wong and Armenta.
“Two weeks ago, Leslie was a shooting guard coming off the bench and now she‘s our starting point guard,” noted Krul. “It‘s great to have Imelda back and Brooke Amenta will be a big-time post player. Even though we seem young on paper, we have a lot of experience.
“This is the most talent I’ve had in my seven years and we’re the fastest we’ve ever been at the guard position.”
Armenta helped El Camino Real of Woodland Hills win the L.A. City championship last year.
Other top freshmen include Brooke Berry, Sara Crane (Dos Pueblos), Michelle Herrera (Santa Ynez) and Shenean Ludwar, a 5-9 guard/forward from Alberta, Canada.
“Shanean Ludwar is a rebounding force,” said Krul. “And her team won their province title in Canada.“
Krul will rotate nine or 10 players in her quick-paced attack.
“Lindsay will give us instant offense off the bench,” she said. “She’s learned how to facilitate, depending on whether she’s playing the point or shooting guard.”
Krul plans to keep the pedal to the medal on defense. “We’ll press the whole game because we can.”
The keys to success for the Vaqueros are “performing and running our system,” according to Krul. “MTXE for life.”
MTXE, which is also the name of SBCC’s Tournament on Nov. 18-20, stands for “Mental Toughness, Extra Effort.”
Krul, an avid reader of team and individual success literature, practices the “deep practice” philosophy identified in “The Talent Code” (Daniel Coyle) and “The 17 Undisputable Laws of Teamwork” (John C. Maxwell).
“We don’t set goals,” she stated. “We just want to get better every day. The hardest thing for coaches to understand is the “deep practice” mentality. If you make every day a big day, it doesn’t matter when a big game comes along because you’ve already practiced it over and over and over again.
“I think we’ll have a lot more confidence in big games this year.“
