Calabasas girls’ basketball team taking steps in right direction

READY TO REBOUND—Calabasas junior point guard Tori Cusick drives to the basket during the Coyotes’ practice session Monday afternoon. Coming off a season in which they went 517 overall and winless in league play, the Coyotes say they are eager to turn around their fortunes this year. They’ve struggled to an 0-5 start so far, including a 46-34 loss to Pacifica Tuesday night in the opening round of the Nordhoff Tournament. CHS will play in the tournament through Saturday. Coming off another season in which they failed to win a league game, and with their third head coach in as many years at the helm, it would be easy for the Calabasas girls’ basketball team to enter the 2005/06 campaign with limited expectations.

Don’t try telling that to the Coyote players and coaches, though, because rather than dwelling on past failures, they’re thinking positively now.

With eight girls returning to the varsity squad and the program coming off consecutive Frosh/Soph. Marmonte League titles, the attitude around the Calabasas’ gym is that the team may finally be stockpiling enough talent to compete with the other seven schools in the Marmonte League.

“We’re very, very eager to finally win a league game,” junior point guard Tori Cusick said. “We need wins in the Marmonte if we want to have a chance to make it to the playoffs—12 wins and making the playoffs, that’s our goal.”

Head coach Stan Whited was brought in to work as an assistant this year, but was elevated to the head coaching position after former coach Tamara McDonald was fired just three days before preseason practices began.

Whited said it’s been a difficult adjustment learning the players’ strengths and weaknesses and implementing his system on such short notice, but he’s trying to make the most of his unexpected opportunity.

“I had just moved here from Missouri over the summer,” Whited said. “Basically, I hardly knew much more than their names.

“(McDonald) was let go and they asked me to take over,” the coach said, whose daughter plays on the CHS junior varsity team. “It’s been kind of hard. It’s been three weeks and we’ve already had a tournament. But I’ve seen progress, so that’s good.”

Calabasas lost all four of its games at the Moorpark Tip-Off Classic last weekend, including a one-point defeat to Channel Islands and a nine-point setback to Camarillo.

The Coyotes played the entire tournament without their leading scorer from a year ago, junior guard Michelle Malkin, who continues to be sidelined with an ankle injury that may keep her out another week or so.

“It’s hard,” Malkin said of sitting out. “I want to go out their so bad and help my team win. But I can’t.”

With Malkin healthy and on the floor this past weekend, Whited said the team could have easily gone 2-2, rather than 0-4.

“We really missed (Malkin) on offense,” Whited said. “With her playing and our defense like it was, I felt like we could have won two of those games.”

Calabasas is a team that’ll have to rely on speedy defenders and outside shooting to have success this season, said the coach.

Their tallest players are 6-foot junior forward Nicole Albuquerque and 5-foot-10 senior forward Airis Willis.

The Coyotes’ lack of height may create matchup problems in the paint against bigger teams, Whited said, a problem CHS hopes to remedy by playing quick guards that can shoot and pressure the ball defensively.

“We have a lot of good threepoint shooters,” senior forward Shida Haghighat said. “Our game is mostly outside instead of inside. . . .To make up for the height, we try to make it more of a transition game—going back and forth, back and forth.”

Malkin, Haghighat and Cusick are all starters and will serve as captains for the Coyotes this season.

Junior guard Daniella Turenshine and Willis, the team’s center, are expected to round out the starting five.

Guards Haley Meadows, Stephanie Plaskoff, Lindsay Marcus, Charmin Arshadi, Staci Oba and Lauren Goldman, along with forwards Danielle Kleiman, Uzee Ikemefuna and Albuquerque complete the CHS roster.

Calabasas is currently playing in the Nordhoff Tournament and will also take part in the Providence Tournament later this month.

CHS will jump into the heart of its Marmonte schedule when they return from winter vacation in early January.

“Everything I’ve heard about the league is that it’s really tough,” Whited said. “It’s not going to be easy. We’ve got a humongous task in front of us. But I like our improvement game to game thus far.”