The Cosumnes River College women’s basketball team picked up their first win of the season after losing their first nine games, defeating Diablo Valley College on Jan. 25 with the final score of 66-38.
“When I took over, they were 10 games behind, no practice really, they were dealing with COVID issues, girls trying to get healthy and have to be quarantined so we didn’t have enough players,” said Interim Women’s Basketball Head Coach Jonathan James. “So, you know we slid into a situation where we are in this together, we do it for me, we do it for them, but let’s take the approach of figuring it out together.”
James also spoke about how he was asked after the season began to coach both the men’s and women’s basketball teams by CRC’s Athletic Director Collin Pregliasco.
“Collin, our AD, asked if I could help out. He didn’t know for how long and I didn’t ask any questions and I said no problem,” James said.
Sophomore guard Briley Jordt, 20, shared more about the struggle to get started late in the season.
“We actually lost the majority of our preseason, which was really frustrating and hard, especially at the beginning of the season, playing against teams that we potentially could be hanging with,” Jordt said. “Really, like we just are still shaking out those beginning game nerves and these teams have like 14 game records and we’re like two games in.”
Jordt also commented on why the season had been so much shorter for the hawks than that of their opponents, saying that there were Covid-19 regulation violations and that there is an ongoing investigation into the situation.
Sophomore forward Chelsea Shirley also weighed in on how the team was dealing with playing so many fewer games than their opponents.
“All these conference games are our first games and we didn’t get those preseason games like other teams did. So they’re like 16 games in when we’re only like seven,” Shirley said. “So I felt like the first half of the season. Yeah, we had a couple of L’s, but that’s because we’re still trying to get those games in, that we missed.”
Jordt continued speaking about how thankful she was to be getting to play this season.
“At first it was frustrating, but overall we’re just so thankful. The bottom line is we’re just so grateful to be getting a season regardless of whether we’re winning, whether we’re losing,“ Jordt said. “Obviously we want to win, and that’s the goal, but we’re just so thankful to be getting a season, especially for those of us that chose to return.”
Jordt also emphasized the role that hustling, and the guidance of coach James are playing in this team coming together.
“Like some days it can very much feel like oh my gosh coach James just hates me today, but it’s really just him starting to help us try to realize that we’re just throwing bad passes at practice and if we do that at practice, we’re going to do it in the game,” Jordt said. “We’re trying to focus a lot more on it at practice, and then watching a lot of game film, just to kind of see like, Okay, I am doing this. Oh, that’s the same thing I did at practice the other day like darn it.”
Shirley expressed optimism for more success as their season winds down.
“I mean, we’re gonna go into every game thinking that we can win and give all of our effort into each game,” Shirley said.