16
Team Rundown:
Yoncalla Girls Basketball
Yoncalla’s fall from the top of 1A
did not happen gradually but came all
at once. Since being seeded fourth at
state in the 2013-14 season, the team
has had three straight years of losing
records and last season finished the
season ranked 46th of the 62 teams
in the 1A classification.
But Nicolas Edera, in his first year
as a head coach, is already thinking
about the long term success of the
team.
“The expectations are not to go
out there and compete and win a
state championship now, but I also
told [the team] that they are the step-
ping stones to start doing that to
build the mountain. And they under-
stand that,” said Edera.
“But I tell ya, in preseason we
might not win a game and I’m okay
with that. They just have to trust me
and we’ll put the pieces in the right
direction.”
When Edera was hired for the job,
there were a total of four girls signed
up to play this season. After getting a
few more girls interested, the roster
is now up to nine and includes four
freshman. Before coaching at Yon-
calla, Edera was an assistant at Suth-
erlin, where he won three consecu-
tive titles, and most recently was an
assistant at Tacoma Community Col-
lege. To get this program to the same
level of a powerhouse like Sutherlin,
Edera understands that the program
has to first grow roots.
“We’re back to basics and we can
start over. We’re planning on being
here quite a few years to get the ele-
mentary program started and when
we get to here, then we can just plug
them in when they know what to
do,” said Edera.
Team Perspective
Team Perspective
with Shanausi Hardy with Jamie Ladd
On the upcoming season:
I’m looking forward to having a
positive season. We haven’t had posi-
tive seasons the last couple years and
just a fun season whether we win a
bunch of games or not. I just want to
have fun. Just having fun with each
other, being friends and being a fam-
ily as a team and not getting mad at
each other.
On what she can bring to the team:
Being a good teammate. Having a
good attitude all the time, doing my
best, not slacking off.
On what she wants to accomplish:
Just possible districts. Even if it’s
not state, I’m looking forward to
possible districts. Then if we can go
to state, that would be awesome but
we’re not there yet.
The Flower Basket
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On being a senior:
It feels pretty good. I’ve always
been the only one from my class to
ever continue to play basketball. So
I’ve always been around people who
are either older than me or younger
than me and no one in between.
I have liked this role. It makes my
performance improve, I feel like.
I feel like a lot of young eyes are
watching me and trying to figure out
what the standard is and I hope that
I can display that for everybody else.
On what she wants from the team:
Just everybody working together
as a team. We’re up as a team, we’re
down as a team. If we just work
harder than our opponents then we
should go far this season.