Soto gets another shot at records
Strathmore begins season against Div. I programs
Basketball players are finally getting the chance to play again with area teams starting the season next week.
On the schedule first for Strathmore High School girls’ basketball is Division I Buchanan, away, on Friday, April 16. The Div. VI Spartans will open their season with three Div. I teams -- including last season’s Open Division Valley Champions, Clovis West
(1-0), and Hanford -and Div. II Selma, before starting East Sequoia League play with Sierra Pacific on April 29.
SHS head coach Richard Miranda, said that with so many teams opting out of a basketball season, a lot of teams are struggling to find other teams to play.
“We have no business playing Clovis West but I want to get these girls on the court,” Miranda said. “I want them to experience what a high caliber high school -- opendivision state champion -- how they take it. How serious they are about it. They have to see that.”
Miranda added, “It’ll be a one-time thing, I know. The girls will remember this. They’ll say, “Remember when we had to go play Clovis West? What was coach thinking?’ But I think it’ll still be a positive experience even though it may not look like it.”
The opportunity for Strathmore to play basketball this season is huge in particular since senior Jazmine Soto is poised to break Tulare County’s all-time scoring record. Soto is already the county’s all-time girls scorer with 2,498 points. Soto only needs 101 more points to beat the boys’ record-holder, Grant Verhoeven (200912 Central Valley Christian) who scored 2,598 points, and become the county’s all-time record holder.
If Soto can score at least 441 points this season, she will also break the Central Section’s all-time girls scoring record of 2,938 points, which was set by West Bakersfield’s Nikki Blue in 2002.
“I went back to last year and at about 17 games she had almost 450 points,” Miranda said. “So in my mind I’m pushing to get to at least 18. If we can get 20, that’s just more opportunity. And I just want to give her the opportunity cause this is it. There’s no more. And she knows it and I know she’s going to grasp it and say, ‘Hey this is it. Coach got me these extra games.’ By me wanting to do this and give her the opportunity, at least now it’s in her hands. Now she can control this. See how it goes.”
With all seven of last year’s players back, the Spartans hope to have a good season so their seniors, Soto and Yvette Gutierrez can go out on high notes. But at the end of the day, they’re also just happy to be back and playing.
“I think it’s good for the kids,” Miranda said. “Not just physically, but mentally. I know Strathmore High administration, they were working their tails off trying to make sure everything fell right, and felt right, for our school to get started.”