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March 1, 2024
Morro Bay High School’s girls varsity basketball team has been extremely successful this year. There have been several records broken by multiple senior players and ridiculously impressive stats from the team as a whole. Their true magic however, comes from the connections the players have with each other and their coaches.
Head coach, Alexander Engel, and assistant coach, Katy Conlin, do wonders for their team. They support the girls on and off the court, ensuring that there is trust and proper communication between themselves and the players. Both coaches are very impressed by their team’s tremendous effort this season.
Engel, better known as Coach Alex, is responsible for almost everything regarding his team. This means coaching practices and games, scheduling games, running off-season workouts, and planning trips for out of town games. He is spoken of highly by his players, but even the best coaches have places to make improvements. Engel shared that he has “tried to be much better at being patient and calm this year,” which encourages his players to stay calm as well.
Coaches Alex Engel and Katy Conlin
Conlin, or as the players call her, Katy, is responsible for helping coach during practices, taking stats during games, and assisting Engel in anything he might need. She believes there is an incredible importance that a personal connection with the team has on coaching. “It all starts with the relationship I have with the girls. If they don't know that I'm there to support them, no coaching technique will work,” she explained.
Both Coach Engel’s and Coach Conlin’s effort has paid off greatly. The team currently has 24 wins and only seven losses. They’re now competing in the CIF state playoffs. Their team is working incredibly well this season, and they believe it comes from the connections they have with each other off of the court.
Sophomore Zoe Fitzwater, senior Fiona Durham, and junior Lannaiah Zales, all of which were interviewed separately, used the same two words to describe the team's connection this year, “great chemistry.” The most common factors that play into this are their team dinners and the bonds they’ve created with each other over the past two or more years. There are even several girls who have known each other since elementary school.
Durham, who’s been playing basketball since the fifth grade, says her love for the sport has only grown since playing at the varsity level. As one of only three seniors on the team, she has had to take on an immense amount of responsibility being a leader and putting in the extra effort that’s admired by colleges. She has stayed extremely humble, however, even taking time to credit her other, younger teammates. “Last year, we gained two really great freshmen, and that has made our team significantly better.”
Those freshmen, Violet Pace and Zoe Fitzwater, also don't allow the praise from their teammates to make them overconfident. They believe their coaches’ dedication to the team is what has made them such great players. The coaches will often watch hours of film in their free time, simply to prepare their players for a game.
It’s clear to see that the Morro Bay High School’s girls basketball team is filled with kind, dedicated players who impress everyone that sees them play. While it’s expected that their coaches would be proud, Engel wanted to make it especially clear that “the girls are a great group of kids, and they work extremely hard; I have a lot of respect for them as individuals.”
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