Calabasas rebuilding in girls’ baskeball

Calabasas rebuilding
in girls’ baskeball

"Everyone was expecting us to be the Malibu of the Marmonte League," said junior shooting guard Ellery Kassel.

But rather than let that unflattering prediction get them down, the Calabasas girls’ basketball team has taken its lumps and still shows plenty of gumption. "It’s a motivation for us," Kassel said.

And so is new coach Howard Entin. With 27 years experience, seven of which have been coaching Calabasas teams, he’s taken the reigns of the CHS varsity girls and led them to a respectable 8-11 overall record.

But critics have also blamed the girls’ rocky season on Entin. At the SoCal Hoops Website, his reputation was blasted on the message board. But with the girls’ wholehearted support, the coach and team seem to have melded.

Like any new relationship, success takes time.

"When we play together, nobody can really stop us," Kassel said. "We’re not the best team, but we probably have the most talent all around, not just on the court."

Members of the team have sung the nation anthem in three of four home games, and quite a few of them are scholar-athletes, some with 4.0 GPAs.

"If we stopped playing basketball, we’d all be able to be successful in life," said Kassel. "We just want to have fun. High school sports has turned into something where people judge a team based on its record, but you can’t judge a team based on whether they win or lose."

Last year’s squad finished second in the Frontier League and reached the second round of CIF playoffs.

"It’s not so much the problems we’re having as a team, it’s simply the nature of the program," said Entin. "We’re basically rebuilding a program, and unfortunately from a timing standpoint, I took over the year that we went into the Marmonte League. The Marmonte League in girls’ basketball is a very competitive league. I just think we have some work to do. We’ve been in most of the games we’ve played. It’s a learning process—and I think it’s opened the girls’ eyes a lot to the level of competition—and it’s been good for them."

His comments were echoed by Kassel. "When you have a great experienced coach like Howard, who has a lot of knowledge about the game, he knows when to be serious and when to be funny. He knows when to be a coach. It’s good to have a coach who relates to you on so many levels," she said.

Calabasas is defense-oriented, primarily due to its lack of size compared to its Marmonte League opponents.

The girls acknowledge that they tend to let down their guard once they build up small leads, and in some games, this has made the difference. Entin emphasized that they need to come out and play hard for all 32 minutes.

For example, against the Westlake Warriors after a slow first quarter, Calabasas dominated the next three quarters, but was unable to make up the deficit.

And last Friday against Agoura, Calabasas was only down by two into the third quarter. However, Agoura picked up the pace to outscore the Coyotes 25-9 in the third, and 17-7 in the fourth, to close out the game.

Despite difficult opposition, Calabasas remains optimistic.

"We’re coming together as a team," said senior guard Christina Pascucci. "We have a lot of work to do, but next time we face Agoura, we’re going to show them a better team."

The CHS girls are starting to gel and they expect other victories.

"We have the type of team where anyone can step up any particular night," Entin said. "I think that Taylor Wolff’s probably consistently our top player. Ellery does a very good job for us, and we have a sophomore point guard, Antonia Zeigler, who’s going to continue to get better and better. She’s doing a really good job and she’s young. We’ve got a nice group of players who all contribute. We’re a really balanced team."