Night full of memories and Porterville pride
With their bellies full and their pockets emptied — all in the name of giving for the kids — attendees at the first Porterville High School boys and girls basketball “Meet the Panthers” night settled into their seats as a progam that would prove both inspiring and full of pride began.
Mike Haskins of Valley Sports Live emceed the night, where every level of Porterville’s boys and girls basketball teams were introduced to 400 Panther faithful parents, fans and members of the community, including Mayor Milt Stowe Saturday evening at the Porterville Fairgrounds.
Meeting the Panthers For varsity, the girls team was welcomed with a loud round of applause after finishing last year with a 27-5 overall record and winning the school’s firstever state playoff game. Their first game of the season is tonight at 6:30 p.m. against Selma at home.
“We are very excited about this year’s team,” girls head coach Dave Kavern said. “We are extremely young, we do not have a senior on the team . ... You’ll hear a lot, if you come watch us play, about being unselfish and being a team. Last year we were in three tournaments, we won two of the tournaments and in each of the three tournaments we had a different player make All-tournament.”
When it was his turn, boys varsity head coach Lance Wallace took some time to explain his 19-year journey as the head of the program and thanked everyone for helping and coming out. Porterville boys went 15-15 last season, and return four seniors with three years of varsity experience.
“If you want to come watch some exciting basketball,” Wallace began, “Some kids that play their tails off, some kids that dive on the floor. Some CONTRIBUTED PHOTO BY kids that play some really tough defense. Some kids that probably shouldn’t win some basketball games that do. This is the group.”
Wallace added that the team is looking to do more than win
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