There are more than just changes at the head coaching position for the girls basketball team entering the new season.
Along with former head coach David Kaplansky, who became the boys coach, gone are last year’s top two scores Nicole Rianda and Erin Glasspool. Three other seniors, who gathered major minutes last year, are gone.
The team, which finished 17-9 overall last year and 8-4 in the Tri-County Athletic League, is in transition, but don’t expect lower expectations entering the new season.
“Well, this year we lost five seniors and five great, good players, actually,” Kelsey Robledo said. “It’s time for us to step up and be seniors. I’m expecting that we are going to do very well and I’m hoping for the best honestly.”
Robledo, who averaged 8 points per game last year, is one of seven players returning to the team from last year. Robledo will be the main focus of the San Benito attack that will build off Kaplansky’s offense from last year.
The team will also rely on returnees Taylor Fabing, Madeleine LePore, Carie Gutierrez and Ellie Burley to try and replace the contributions from last year’s departing players.
New head coach Mitch Burley, whose daughter is Ellie Burley, plans to be a very fundamental type of coach with little restriction on plays.
“My college coach was about real fundamentals so I think I’m more of a teaching coach,” Burley said. “I think I’m real technical. I’m an engineer by training so that’s how my mind works.”
Burley, who went 22-2 as the boys freshmen coach last year, hopes to keep the team loose and allow them to “over perform.”
“One of the things I looked at when I was a senior in high school, was my coach had been there for two years and left to be a (junior college) coach,” Burley said. “He left me as a senior and we got a new coach who wasn’t like a career coach and was just a teacher. It was the most fun I’ve ever had and our team performed as well as we could have.”
He continued, “We kind of over-performed and I always looked back at that and wondered how that was.”
The reason was because the coach focused on the basics and let the team play basketball, Burley said.
“I don’t remember having a lot of plays, just playing basketball,” he said. “We had a little offense and that’s what I’ve tried to model here – teaching them some basics and letting them play instead of me dictating what they do. Give them the tools and see what happens.”
Burley doesn’t expect to be as intense as Kaplansky was, but will try to create a group atmosphere among the team.
“We have a really good group and I think their teamwork will be really great,” Burley said. “Their teamwork will be the key to success. We don’t have a stamp other than we will play together.”
And so far the team has bought in.
“We are doing a lot of basic fundamentals to make sure we have it down before we start going into the actual plays,” Robledo said. “I think it will help a lot.”
Like the past few years, the team will focus on an aggressive defense that puts pressure on its opponents, Robledo said. Her teammates see Robledo has the team’s strength.
“Well, I think we are going to be pretty good this year,” LePore said. “We have some good guards and Kelsey in the post. It’s weird and different, but we’ll get used to it.”
She continued, “We are going to be really strong inside.”
Burley hopes to create a new type of success in the program and not rely on the laurels of the past coach and teams.
“I think it’s not fair to say continued success because we only have two returning players that played a lot, so it’s a whole new squad,” he said. “Hopefully, this team can start it’s own success.”
The ultimate goal is for the team to reach it’s currently-unknown potential and the Central Coast Section playoffs once again.
“February is our goal,” Burley said. “If we can get back to where we were last year in CCS it would be a successful season.”
The team opens the season on Dec. 6 against Westmont High. The Balers host a scrimmage at 10 a.m. Saturday.
