South City guard Steven Fernando dribbles against Jayden Rodriguez, right, while Joshua Davis , left, looks on at the Warriors’ varsity practice Wednesday.
The downturn at South San Francisco High School with the absence of its varsity football team will not carry over into basketball season.
South City boys’ basketball head coach Isaiah Igafo recently confirmed the addition of a freshman team to the school’s hoops programs. The Warriors will feature three teams this season, along with varsity and junior-varsity teams.
Igafo said the impressive turnout for basketball tryouts in September inspired him to form a freshman team. Approximately 30 sophomores and 25 freshmen turned out, along with a mix of juniors and seniors.
“Just from there, we had so many people, it didn’t make sense to cut anybody off,” Igafo said. “There’s no feeder program in the South City school district, so I figured it would be a chance to just build that up, to build things up.”
Igafo is in his second season running the South City basketball program but is in his second turn with the program. He previously served as a varsity assistant under Keith Smith, before leaving to run the Jefferson girls’ junior-varsity team when his wife, Marisa Igafo, was the head coach of Jefferson girls’ varsity.
Isaiah Igafo is the son-in-law of former South City girls’ varsity head coach Paul Carion, who recently took over the girls’ program at Jefferson.
And to add to the family affair, Isaiah Igafo’s father Joshua Igafo has signed on as head coach of the South City freshman team. The JV head coach is Jay Magat with Tyler Del Rio serving as JV assistant.
“I think all he’s doing, he runs a great summer program,” South City athletic director Matt Schaukowitch said, “and gets as many kids involved as he can. And it’s just going to show up with this freshman team.”
Due to the decision to add the freshman team occurring after the start of the school year, Isaiah Igafo was not able to meet the deadline for Peninsula Athletic League scheduling. So, instead of being included on the PAL slate, South City’s coach put together a schedule the old-fashioned way, calling around and scheduling non-league games.
The freshman Warriors now have a full 20-game schedule.
As for the varsity Warriors, Isaiah Igafo has all but announced his starting five, with guards Steven Fernando and Nolan Alimorong, forwards Joshua Davis and Jayden Rodriguez, and center Max Lara.
“I just want us to have that underdog mentality that we have to prove we can be that top tier,” Isaiah Igafo said.
Boys’ varsity basketball looms large at South City, after the school did not field a varsity football team in the spring. The South City junior-varsity team under head coach Dion Evans posted a 1-8 record.
The only varsity team sport South City fielded in the fall was boys’ cross-country.
Schaukowitch said momentum from the JV football season helped fuel the large turnout of underclassman basketball players.
“I think with us just having a JV football team, a lot our kids are playing basketball or soccer that did play JV football,” Schaukowitch said.
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CA Is Burning said:
CA Is Burning said:
CA Is Burning said:
Disadvantaged = uneducated third world foreigners whose living habits are not aligned with the USA.
CA Is Burning said:
LITTLE - I think the time is here, have you considered MAID?
Thomas Morgan said:
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