Vista girls open summer basketball program

It's June which means it's time for the high school basketball teams to get together and see what kind of teams they might have this winter. Folsom and Vista's girls' varsity teams opened the tournament season last weekend with their annual Summer Splash Tournament held at Vista del Lago. The Eagles team, led by coach Marty Benjamin, split four games, beating El Dorado and Lincoln on Saturday, while losing to Rocklin and Whitney on Sunday. Wins and losses, of course, are not important in June; developing players and a team are. Benjamin was pleased with what he saw despite missing a few girls who were away at other commitments. "Generally, I was pleased," Benjamin said. "We did a lot of good things on both days and the things we need to work on were magnified the better the competition we played against." Vista's win over Lincoln was a good one, as the Zebras won 20 games last winter behind 6-4 sophomore post Taylor Butler, who averaged 16 points a game. "I'm pretty happy with that win," Benjamin said. "They played Folsom and gave them a very good game. Sunday was a bit more challenging playing against Rocklin and Whintey because we were playing with Stasia (Outslay). Whitney's press hurt us." The first tournament of the month is always difficult, as the team plays its first games after only a handful of practices, but Benjamin likes it. "What I like about the first tournament is you're putting together girls that have no chemistry and you can watch it build," Benjamin said. "You've got freshmen who are new to the program and you get to see what their strengths and weaknesses are and you've got veteran players who are stepping up into bigger roles." The most important thing about any team is that they play hard all the time. For the most part, the Eagles did and that was probably the best thing Benjamin saw all weekend. "Our message to the girls was to play hard and play physical because those areas are hard to coach," Benjamin said. "When you have a team that plays hard and physical and hustles, that makes all the difference. Then that team can just focus on running the offense and doing the little things. Playing hard is not a skill, it's a mindset. You decide if you're going to do it or not. When you don't have to worry about that as a coach, it makes your life a bit easier." One thing Benjamin will have to replace this year is the team's leadership core, as Kesley Brooks and Makenna Cassidy have graduated. He saw players like junior Adalai Lawson, sophomore Natalie Ward and Outslay, a senior, step up over the weekend. Benjamin was also pleased with their play. "Natalie had a really good weekend in a lot of categories," Benjamin said. "She played a lot of minutes, she played physically and she ran the team well as the point guard. Adalai and Stasia also played well. We missed Stasia on Sunday. I thought freshman Penny Neitling played well too. She did a good job finishing at the rim and she didn't look afraid or timid." Members of the team who played in the tournament included Lawson, Ward, Outslay, Neitling, Sienna Bell, Isha Kaspha, Kaia Lopez, Abbey Morales, Quinn Smith and Eva Solodovnik. Among the players missing from the Eagles lineup were sophomores Payton Grover and Camille Rabe. Benjamin called the tournament the first step during the long month of June. This weekend the Eagles play at the Whitney Tournament.