As we approach the start of the girl’s basketball season here at Tele, it is important to understand where this team is coming from and where they are going.
The last few seasons have not been friendly for the team, as they have finished with a 12-27 record over the last three seasons in the 3A Brooklyn/Staten Island division. They are going into this new season still in that same division playing teams like McKee Staten Island, Clara Barton, Erasmus, Leon M. Goldstein, Sunset Park High School, Lafayette, CSI, and Petrides.
Going in to the 2024-2025 campaign, the team lost seniors Jaileen Fernandez, Xin Yang, Karen Garcia, and Elva Ng. Returning to the team is Vanessa Archer, Teresa Arreola, Leilah Sharhan, Lalyn Siew, Dlal Elssaid, and Samya Wah.
This is Coach Young’s 9th season coaching the girl’s basketball team. Along with the basketball team, he also coaches the girl’s soccer team. Before coaching the girls, he coached both the Boy’s JV basketball team and Volleyball team.
When asked about how he feels about this season, he voiced uncertainty about the season. “We have three new girls but lost two girls and I don’t know how I feel for this season because we haven’t had any scrimmages or practices.”
This is due in part to the players commitment to the bowling team. Out of the 5 projected starters for this year’s basketball team, 3 of them, Juniors Dlal Elssaid, Gabby Ruiz and Senior Lalyn Siew, were apart of the “A” team for our bowling program.
“With the bowling playoffs overlapping with the beginning of the basketball season, I felt rushed in to this basketball season” says Senior team captain Lalyn.
Coach Young goes on to mention that he will change around the positions and input a new offensive scheme that looks to push the pace, especially off of defensive rebound. He also wants to improve their two-three zone defense to generate more stops.
Their first game is this Tuesday, November 26th against McKee/Staten Island Tech.
