Girls’ basketball: Laguna Creek’s huge senior class puts wind under Cardinals’ wings
If experience is a factor in building a championship team, then the Laguna Creek girls’ basketball team should be near the start of every conversation.
Of the nine seniors on Laguna Creek’s roster, eight have four years of varsity experience. Eight. The Cardinals’ class of 2022 helped turn things around for head coach Cody Norman.
Cardinal pride runs deep for Norman, a member of Laguna Creek’s original graduating class in 1997. Now in his eighth season as the girls’ head coach, Norman began his coaching career immediately after high school. He was asked to be a varsity assistant at Laguna Creek the year after he graduated from the school.
“It was kind of odd coaching my former teammates because some of them were even older than me,” Norman said. “It was just one of those weird things.”
After nine years of coaching all three levels of boys’ hoops at Laguna Creek, Norman took his first head-coaching gig at Florin in 2006. He had one year coaching in Southern California before returning to Elk Grove and making a long commute for teaching and coaching at Manteca High School. After three years with the Buffaloes, a vacancy opened up in the Elk Grove Unified School District in 2014.
“I said the only job I’d take is if it’s at Laguna Creek,” Norman said.
The rest is history. Norman experienced his share of growing pains with the girls program. Seasons of 4-23 and 3-24 preceded the upswing that began with this year’s senior class coming in as freshmen in 2018-19.
Norman started five freshmen as the team exploded to a 26-4 campaign. There was no sophomore slump as the Cardinals improved by two wins, grabbed a share of the Metro League crown, a Sac-Joaquin Section semifinal appearance and a NorCal regional win.
“They had a great basketball IQ,” Norman said. “Usually freshmen have a hard time getting eligible or turning in the proper paperwork. They were on it from day one.”
At the forefront of the Cardinals’ four-year faction are seniors Ahrray Young and Zoe Tillery. Young, a Tulsa-commit, is a legitimate threat for a triple-double on any given night. Averaging 15.9 points, 8.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game for her career entering this season, Young eclipsed the 1,000-point plateau in Laguna Creek’s first game this season against Capital Christian. With career averages of 13.9 points, 3.7 steals and more than 130 3-pointers, Tillery will soon join Young in the 1,000-point club this season as well.
“They set the tone,” Norman said. “When you have two girls that can go out and lead right away and can go out and do things right away, it decreases the amount of time you spend teaching the game.”
Laguna Creek improved to 3-0 Tuesday night with an 82-49 home win over Sheldon as Young (28 points) and Tillery (22) combined to outscore the Huskies on their own.
“It’s our final year, so we’re gonna come out and show out and finish with a bang,” Tillery said. “We just push each other really well to be the best we can be. We all hustle. We all play for each other because we all have the same end goal to make it as far as we can.”
Laguna Creek, the Bee’s No. 4 team in the preseason girls’ basketball poll, uses its ranking as fuel for its new campaign.
“I feel like these past few years, we’ve been ranked lower than we are supposed to be,” Young said. “I honestly feel like No. 4 is disrespect. We’re gonna play as a No. 4, if not better, this year. We’re expecting a lot out of our younger talent as well as our upperclassmen.”
The Cardinals’ supporting cast includes fourth-year seniors Alicia Enriquez, Akira Coleman and Eva Taylor. Juniors Jasmine Howard, Laila Barron and Aliviyah McMurray (a Sheldon transfer) and sophomore Jakayla Gilmer also look to contribute to Norman’s rotation.
“We still haven’t been able to get that section title, so that’s something we’re shooting for,” Norman said. “Obviously trying to win a Metro League title is important to us. Anything after sections is a cherry on top of the sundae.”