San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
MOUNT MIGUEL GIRLS SPELL DOUBLE-TROUBLE FOR OPPOSITION
When Ixchel Rojo and Jennifer Moreno met as second-grade classmates at Jofefa Ortiz Dominguez school in Los Mochis, Mexico, little did they realize just how close they’d become.
“We’re more like sisters than friends,” said Rojo who, like Moreno, is a 17year-old junior at Mount Miguel High. “Even our families are close. We became friends playing basketball right from the start and, like little kids, we talked about how great it would be to go to school in the U.S.”
With extended family living in the region, both were able to have that dream come true by entering Mount Miguel as freshmen, with basketball making the transition that much easier. They came with glittering credentials.
“We were good,” said Moreno of the U14 club team that encompassed the entire state. “We won a lot of national championships in Mexico, but we knew we’d get a lot better a lot faster here.
“In Mexico, the pace of the game is much slower, and they play zone defense. The pace is much faster here — much faster. Everything in Mexico is planned but here we can take the shot whenever.”
Mount Miguel, under coach Robbie Sandoval, will press full court or at a minimum, half court. Fast is the name of the game, and Rojo, who has a 3.6 GPA and Moreno, who is even better at 3.9, picked up the nuances quickly.
They didn’t have much choice. In 2019, their freshman year, the Matadors were rebuilding. With just seven players on the roster, there was no problem getting playing time.
“We were all the same size,” said Rojo, who like Moreno is 5-foot-6. “We didn’t have a post player, and we were all playing almost the whole game. It was hard but we learned a lot.
“Last year we had two bigs and this year we have one (6-1 Danay Williamspope).
We really like playing against the best teams, like La Jolla Country Day (which has two players off the World Champion U17 team) because that’s how we get better. You learn more from hard games.”
Looking back, they were members of the 2019-20 team that went 22-9, suffering a rare league loss they avenged before losing in the second round of the state Division III playoffs to Santa Maria Righetti, with Moreno scoring 32 points.
The Matadors went 19-6 last season, falling to Anaheim Fairmont Prep in the Southern California Regionals. Both girls were selected second team All-section.
The Matadors are off to a 3-0 start, and they had one easy win, 78-37 over La Costa Canyon; one thriller, 54-53 over Del Norte, when Williams-pope was unavailable; and another rout, 85-6, over Steele Canyon, in which Moreno scored 35 points to surpass 1,000 for her career.
Playing in the Open Division, they have games scheduled against La Jolla Country Day, Cathedral Catholic and Mission Hills this season. Moreno is averaging 22.3 points and Rojo 14.6.
“Both of them are now on the Mexican Under-17 team,” Sandoval said. “The thing about them is their skill level is really good. They were a lot better than most freshmen you see coming out. They have great ball skills and are really intelligent players.
“During COVID last year,
Jennifer missed 10 games with a foot injury, but she was still our leading scorer. They won the U15 championships in Mexico City in 2019. Then they got invited to the U17 team training camp last summer, where they were both selected for the Mexican national team.”
One of the advantages of being on the U17 team is Rojo’s father, Roy, is one of the coaches.
“My family has played basketball since I was really little,” said Rojo, who obviously included Moreno in the games. “My brother, Roy Jr., is almost 6 feet and he’s in the eighth grade.”
But for now, the two girls are looking ahead to league, section and even state championships the next two years, college ball after that and then something even more special.
“Playing in the Olympic Games (for Mexico) would be another dream come true,” Moreno said. “We just have to keep working hard and getting better.”