Beatty hoopsters warming up for the season

Joe Serrano, last year’s Beatty boys basketball coach, won’t be returning this season. Steve Sullivan, former girls basketball coach and volleyball coach, will be the new head coach. Beatty Athletic Director Bryson Moore said Serrano is moving on to better things. Under Serrano the team was 4-10 overall.

“I actually approached Steve. I heard that he was interested in coaching, but he wasn’t going to do it if Joe wanted to come back,” he said.

Andy Ibarra will be the junior varsity coach.

Steve Sullivan started coaching with Beatty as the head volleyball coach for the girls in 2012. He did volleyball, girls basketball and track until the end of 2013 and then took the 2014 season off.

According to Luis Flores, the team is doing some heavy conditioning.

“The coach says even if we are not the best team, we will be the best conditioned. This is his motto. I expect to be running and gunning and controlling the pace,” Flores said.

Luis Flores will be a big part of the Beatty offensive game. He was the point guard last year. Flores said he and his teammates are adapting well to their new coach. He also said to expect good things from Jacob Oseguera, who has some good ball handling skills too. Wyatt Henry will also be providing some much needed height for the team at six foot two inches.

“At this point with only two practices under us, we really have not seen Coach Sullivan’s system yet but it’s a different coach so I am expecting a new system because you usually don’t get two coaches with the same philosophy,” Flores said.

This will be the third Beatty basketball coach in the last three years.

Flores said the team is really strong. They have 20 players coming out this year.

“A lot of us have been playing together since the sixth grade and we only really lost one senior last year. We are used to being around each other and we get along. I am really looking forward to it.”

Lady Hornets basketball

For the girls’ team, it will be Aimee Senior and Renee Cathcart as the assistant. Senior has been coaching as the head varsity coach since 2001.

In 2013, Senior had said that she might retire after 2013 but all that is behind her. She said 2014 is different.

“I am back for good. This is a good bunch of girls and I think they’re a good coachable group of girls. I am thinking of state, which would be nice to do twice in my career. Right now we have 12 girls coming out,” Senior said.

Senior has coached the team for the past 13 years. She first started coaching basketball for the junior high in Beatty in 1990 and did so for three years. She moved up to high school where she coached from 1996 to 2000 as the assistant varsity coach. Her first year as head coach was in 2001.

Junior Denise Gonzalez is ready to start the season. She plays point and shooting guard.

“This year I think we will be pretty good, especially on defense,” Gonzalez said. “We have a young team, but almost the whole team from last year is coming back. We now have more experienced players that can step up like Alexi Gil, Claudia Granados, Maggie Cathcart, Eaire Davis and Sinai Hernandez.”

Gonzalez said she will be working on improving her three-point shooting this year.