Despite two tough losses to Monterey’s York School, the Anzar High School girls basketball team has locked second in the Pacific Coast Athletic League championships. Their one remaining game, to be played on Feb. 14, is an away game against Oakwood School in Morgan Hill, an opponent they previously beat 49-30.
“The other teams are more competitive this year, and we are still trying to find our legs in every game,” said head coach Gilbert Grio after the team’s 43-34 victory on Feb. 8 against Kirby High School. “But we have become a much more cohesive group—everybody is there for each other and helps each other out. I love this group of girls.”
Madysun Roderick, who started playing basketball with the encouragement of a middle school coach, competed in the summer league last year and is one of two graduating seniors this year. “She can do it all,” Grio said, describing Roderick as the team’s second-leading scorer, leading rebounder and leading shot blocker.
“The only low point this season for me was playing against York,” Roderick said. “But I am very proud of how we have done, and things have been going well. We have mostly freshmen this year, but they have shown amazing improvement since the start of the season. And Coach Grio is always uplifting and encouraging—he made us into a great team.”
Roderick said their main strength is their defense and points to fellow senior Giselle Grio, who has been playing basketball since the sixth grade, as a key player. Giselle is the coach’s daughter, and he modestly describes her as “a good team player who does whatever is asked of her.”
Giselle said for her the season’s highlight so far has been watching the team show what they learned during the pre-season, losing all eight games to higher-ranked Pacific Coast Athletic League teams.
“I could see everybody getting better,” she said. People who had not been making many points started scoring, and our freshmen have been getting more aggressive. We did lose against York in our first league game, and we were a little discouraged. But it was a learning experience, and I think we have done really well throughout the rest of the season.”
The York games demonstrated the team’s willingness to improve their performance as they fought to the last minute. While they lost their Jan. 6 league season opener to York 52-30, they held them to a much tighter 38-31 in their Jan. 30 game.
“We were pretty close the entire time during that last game,” Grio said. “The girls really tried but the other team was on fire, and we could never get over the hump. It was a low point, but they did their best, and I am very proud of them.”
With two departing seniors, next year’s team will rely on players like sophomore and team scoring leader Piper Shankle, who was responsible for 19 of the 43 points in the last game against Kirby. Grio says he is excited to have her back but is also enthusiastic about three freshman players expected to return: Esmeralda Gonzalez, Shelbie Freeman and Zoe Martinez.
“One thing that excites me is this group of girls has been playing every weekend during open gyms,” he said. “They’ve all been showing up, and we will probably work through the summer. So that will give them more of a foundation next year. And hopefully next year we will have more of a full season—there were only six schools in the league that could field teams.”
Grio was also thankful for the community’s support over the last two months.
“We had all of the parents involved and many nice people volunteering,” he said. “We also had a lot of people coming to watch the games. There has definitely been a hometown atmosphere surrounding us.”
We need your help. Support local, nonprofit news! BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website that reports on San Benito County. Our team is committed to this community and providing essential, accurate information to our fellow residents. It is expensive to produce local news and community support is what keeps the news flowing. Please consider supporting BenitoLink, San Benito County’s public service, nonprofit news.