Net gains: La Jolla High JV girls basketball team wins in tournaments and camaraderie

After netting two tournament victories last month, the La Jolla High School junior varsity girls basketball team and its new coach started league play with a win.

The team of seven sophomores and five freshmen took both the JV Mission Bay Bucs and Mira Mesa Marauders holiday classics in December with a 12-1 record — momentum the girls hope to maintain through the season.

The Vikings got off to a good start in the league schedule Jan. 6 with a 39-37 road victory over Patrick Henry High. Home games follow this week against Madison at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 10, and University City at 4 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13.

Coach Matthew Butcher is in his first season as a high school basketball coach after coaching at the elementary and middle school levels.

Butcher attributes the team’s success so far to the girls’ determination. “They’re very passionate,” he said. “They’re having a lot of fun and we’ve been working really hard.”

Adam Stadtmiller, the team’s statistician and the high school foundation’s parent liaison for girls basketball, said “we basically beat every high school team” in the tournaments, losing only Dec. 28 to San Diego High, which La Jolla defeated the next day to take the tournament.

“The camaraderie as a team and seeing how you go from one moment having your head down to the next moment celebrating a fantastic victory … is just a great thing,” Butcher said.

Team co-captain and sophomore Elena Farrar, who was named Most Valuable Player of the Mission Bay tournament, said “I think we’re doing really well because we all have good communication and we are all friends. It really helps that we know each other and we’re comfortable playing with each other.”

Co-captain Lucy Stadtmiller, a sophomore who averaged 12 points and 10 rebounds per tournament game, said team play has “been a lot better than last year … since last year we didn’t really win much. A lot of our players have been [playing] other sports and getting more athletic. … We’ve come back … a lot faster.”

Both Elena and Lucy began playing basketball as freshmen and hope to make the varsity team next season.

Last season “was my first year playing a sport,” Lucy said. “I really liked it.”

“We’re trying to build a program and make athletics … incredible,” said Adam Stadtmiller, Lucy’s father. “Parents are just excited to see that same level of excellence in both the academics and the athletics.”

He said the girls “bring a high-energy determination to the game” and that Butcher is an “awesome” coach.

Butcher said “I’m having a blast” and the girls have “a whole different mentality about them. … All we can do is get better every single game.”

Lucy said that means “working on a lot more technical aspects as of late, because our coach is actually quite good at noticing what we’re … lacking.”

The team is “working backward and [improving] the things that we’re bad at,” she said.

“We’re just going to power through and do our best,” Elena said. “As long as we play our best and just hustle, I think we can win.”

Another factor contributing to the team’s connection is its international dimension, as several nationalities, from Korea to Iran, are represented and several languages are spoken, including Spanish, German, Portuguese and Basque.

The diversity “makes us a lot more connected,” Lucy said. “It’s a lot more personal.”

Elena, who has Brazilian heritage, said the different languages “bring us together more because we have something in common and a lot of personal connection.”

“It’s great to see how basketball is a worldwide sport,” Butcher said. “Even though we’re all there for the same purpose of playing basketball … we all are unique individuals and … we’re there to hopefully continue to support each other as a team.” ◆