Eagles aim for improvement

Estancia High girls’ basketball coach Tommy Rausch has no lack of senior leadership this year.

The Eagles’ second-year coach has so many seniors, 10, that he could create an all-senior scrimmage if he wanted to, five-on-five.

“They’ve all played for a couple years now,” Rausch said. “They get the concepts. All the seniors are our leaders. They do a good job pushing each other.”

One of the seniors, point guard Tiffany Monteiro, is Estancia’s only returning starter.

“It helps to have her experience,” Rausch said.

Monteiro, who wears No. 1, wasn’t close to the Eagles’ No. 1 scorer last year though. That job belonged to program graduates like Yasmin Arroyo, Michelle Hallock and Lina You. Arroyo, a first-team All-Orange Coast League selection, led the team by scoring 9.7 points per game for a team that averaged just fewer than 40 a night.

Hallock, a second-team selection, scored eight points per game as she and Arroyo combined for nearly half of Estancia’s points.

Their production will be picked up by other varsity returners like 5-foot-9 starting center Abby Koff, who was the first person off the bench last year, Rausch said. The other returners are senior guards Steffi Ramirez and Magali Millan.

Monteiro, Koff and Ramirez are all tri-captains this season, because, as Rausch said, “they all really want to win.”

Steffi’s twin sister Stacy Ramirez, Julie Arreola, Susy Ruiz, Diana Gutierrez, Amber Thomas and Samantha Lazarus make up the rest of Estancia’s strong senior class. All of them were on Estancia’s Orange Coast League champion junior varsity team a year ago.

But the Eagles also have strong underclassmen as well, like 5-foot-10 freshman Kassie Stratton. Along with fellow freshman Yesenia Maldonado, Stratton’s the tallest player on the team, and her hot start has helped Estancia.

Stratton has led the Eagles (1-3) in scoring in each of their first four games. She’s averaging 15 points, Rausch said.

“She has done a great job for us so far,” Rausch said.

So has sophomore point guard Erika Soto, whose sister Brenda, a freshman, is also on the team. Erika Soto was the junior varsity MVP last season.

“She’s a hustler,” Rausch said. “She makes things happen. She does a lot of things you can’t teach, like being in the right spot at the right time.”

The coach hopes this is the right time for Estancia girls’ basketball, too. The Eagles went 3-20, winless in the Golden West League two years ago. Last year, they improved to 8-13, and won three Orange Coast League games.

A similar kind of jump this season would suit Rausch just fine. He said, although Costa Mesa is the front-runner to repeat as league champion, he thinks his team can battle Calvary Chapel for the league’s second playoff spot.

“We want to make CIF for the first time in five years,” he said. “I’m very confident we’ll improve on last year’s record.”

Early on, he said the Eagles have shown good camaraderie.

“They really like each other, which is nice,” Rausch said. “The team has done a good job of being a team. We’ve just got to get our playmakers the ball.”

MATT SZABO may be reached at (714) 966-4614 or by e-mail at [email protected].