St. Paul girls basketball off to hottest start in years
SANTA FE SPRINGS – The St. Paul girls basketball team is off to one of its best starts to a season in years.
They hit their first bump in the road to perfection, with their first loss of the season after a 13-0 start.
No St. Paul team has come close to that streak to start the season in years.
St. Paul did have a 13-game winning streak in 2019, which started in the third game of the season. The Swordsmen finished up with an overall record of 23-5 and won the Camino Real League title with a perfect 8-0 record. That would be their last season in the Camino Real as they moved into the Del Rey League in 2020.
Interim coach Rich Avina, who is also the athletic director for St. Paul, has his team ranked No. 13 in the latest CIF-Southern Section Division 1 Poll (Jan. 10).
Prior to their first loss to No. 7 (D1) Orangewood Academy in the Northview Girls Basketball Tournament on Saturday (Jan. 8), the Lady Swordsmen were off to their best start in 17 years.
“Their length was a factor and it looked like we were a little sluggish with the ball in our hands,” Avina said. “Part of the protocols, in terms of practice, has put us back.
“One of our strengths has always been the energy that we play with in being in shape. You lose all of those legs in that time frame. Everyone was chomping at the bit to play. Our approach is just finding ourselves and paying hard.”
St. Paul (14-1) returns all of its players from last season.
Avina was referring to the layoff over the Christmas break, mainly due to game cancellations.
The Swordsmen started the season with three tournaments (12 wins) and won them all – which included the Mark Keppel, Rosemead and Marina tournaments.
It was the first time ever that St. Paul Girls Basketball has won three tournaments in one season.
“We have a real good squad,” Avina added. “We beat a very good Redondo team and Palos Verdes team, with a short-handed team.”
Included in that team is newcomer and freshman guard Gloria Barrera.
“She plays inside the paint and can handle the ball,” Avina said. “She is a stud.”
Barrera was named All-Tournament for all three tourneys that St. Paul played in during the preseason.
A valuable player for Avina is sophomore guard Loretta Aguirre-Colmenero, who has been a big part of coming off the bench as the sixth man this season. “She brings energy off the bench,” Avina added.
A transfer from Mayfair, sophomore guard Syri Prevo, and newcomer, sophomore center Sara Guajardo-Rivera, have added to the scoring punch for the Swordsmen.
Guajardo-Rivera who is a sophomore transfer from Nuevo Leon, Monterrey, Mexico commented on the speed of the American game of basketball.
“I think here is a lot faster and more aggressive,” she said. “We have a pretty good team and a full team. I didn’t know that we were going to play real good teams when I came here. They are really good, Division 1 teams. I didn’t expect that when I came here and saw that we were playing the big teams. I got real excited.”
The St. Paul girls have the luxury of really having two coaches to guide them.
Robert Miller, who has been the St. Paul Principal for the last two years, has headed up the program for years, but has Avina taking charge on a daily basis.
Miller, with his busy schedule, comes to practice as much as he can and provides a different angle than Avina.
Guajardo-Rivera noted how important it was to have two different types of coaches.
“I think they are different, but compliment each other pretty good,” she added.
Miller has guided the program for many successful years, which included six trips to the CIF finals. The team won its first title in 2016 and advanced to the CIF State Regional semifinals.
Avina started coaching with Miller in 2006 through 2009 on the boys side, when he was coaching both boys and girls at the same time.
Avina was heavily involved with the football program with Marijon Ancich at the time. Miller then gave up the boys side and he stayed strictly with the girls again. Avina was involved with strength and conditioning, as well as behind the scenes basketball talks (very informal) from 2010-2016. Starting in 2019 until now, he has been coaching full time for the girls team.
Avina made it a point that all of his coaching comes from Miller, saying, “I learned everything from Robert. There’s not one thing that I draw up that I haven’t seen him draw up.
“When Robert comes to practice, he’s missed it, because this is his world. He loves basketball. I 100% step back. Everything that Mike (Mercado) and I do is not one thing that Robert hasn’t discussed with us.”
Mercado is assisting Avina and Miller and pointed out the importance of coming to St. Paul.
“The way we do things here at St. Paul is what drew me to come back to the program,” said Mercado, of his returning from a previous stint at the school. “It’s the expectation and you expect the girls to come up to this level. Coach Robert (Miller) created this culture and it’s the developing of young women to work hard and see the benefits.”
As for the 54-47 loss to Orangewood, the Lady Swordsmen were led by Barrera with 15 points, followed by Prevo with 12 points, including two, 3-pointers and 10 points from Guajardo-Rivera. Junior guard Frida Cadena-Hernandez had six points and Aguirre-Colmenero added four points.
Leading the way for Orangewood Academy was junior Jayionne Brown with a game-high 24 points, followed by 18 from University of Washington-bound Amaya Lacy.
St. Paul opened the game with a 7-0 run, five of which came from Barrera. Their biggest lead of the game, 9-5, came after Barrera scored on a layup with 1:43 left in the opening quarter.
“I thought we had it with that 7-0 lead, but it was a tougher game,” Barrera said. “I think we could have done better.”
Orangewood, with a 10-2 run, took its first lead of the game, 10-9, with 20 seconds left in the quarter on a 3-pointer by Lacy.
The second quarter saw both teams score 10 points each. The Swordsmen again started the quarter with a small, 5-0 run and the 14-10 lead. Guajardo-Rivera had four of those points.
The Spartans outscored St. Paul the rest of the period with a 10-5 run to end the half, leading 20-19.
Barrera talked of her early years and hopes to play for St. Paul when she was young.
“I always wanted to go to St. Paul because of coach Miller,” she said. “I’ve known him and because I would practice with them in the summer when I was 10 or 11.
After the intermission, it was all Spartans as they doubled St. Paul’s total points in the third quarter, 25-12. Orangewood led, 45-31 heading into the fourth quarter.
“I think we just got tired,” said Barrera, of the third quarter outburst by Orangewood. “It was tough because we didn’t have practices and we were out of shape because of the Covid situation. We only practiced for three days.
Barrera added six more points in the final quarter, as the Swordsmen outscored Orangewood, 16-9, but fell by seven points in the game.
Barrera said of her hopes for the team in the upcoming years, “It’s a lot of pressure, but I feel we can win (Del Rey) league. That’s one of my goals.”
Avina concluded with a comment on what the team has gone through this past year.
“These girls overcame adversity, protocol issues and quarantining and still did a great job so far,” Avina concluded.