It’s been a good start to the year for Valencia head coach Greg Fontenette and his team as the Vikings began the year with three straight wins over Heritage Christian, Calabasas and Agoura.
The Vikings, who began last season with a loss against Calabasas, already look to be a stronger team this season as Valencia defeated the Coyotes, 70-65, last week at Heritage Christian High School.
Despite the win, Fontenette believes there is still work left to be done to get better but states that his team is on the right track.
“I think the Heritage win really gave us some momentum going into that Calabasas game,” he said. “It wasn’t our best game, offensively. We all agreed as a team that we could have played a lot better. And our main two guys, Noah Trevino and Issac Michel-Zavala, didn’t have great offensive play, like they normally do, but they found other ways to contribute.”
In the season opener against Heritage Christian, the Vikings only managed to win via a game winner from Romel McCoy, who scored five points along with two rebounds. Ali Eldein led all Vikings with 18 points.
But Fontenette added that despite the slow start to the year on offense, players such as Trevino and Michel-Zavala still impacted the game in ways where the success carried over onto the win over Calabasas.
“Trevino just constantly staying aggressive and attacking the paint, ultimately led up to him being able to make that pass to Romel for the game winner,” he said “We couldn’t really find our footing offensively, but we put a lot of focus going into the season on the defensive part of the ball, and that’s what kind of kept us in that game and kept us within striking distance. And then you take that momentum going into Calabasas.”
The Vikings carried that momentum and turned it into a win over Calabasas and an improved offensive showing as Valencia scored 70 points in the victory.
Michel-Zavala led all Vikings in scoring 19 points along with six rebounds, and Steve Irons recorded a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
“My main job as the coach was just trying to keep them level headed, because coming off that game, they’re coming off a high horse,” Fontenette added. “So, just trying to remind them that we still have a long season ahead of us. And now we need to take everything, like one game at a time, and once we’re at that game, we need to take it one quarter at a time.”
For Fontenette, the goal of facing tough competition is to have his team prepared for the Foothill League, which he believes is one of the best public-school basketball leagues in Southern California.
“I think Foothill League has probably the top public schools in basketball in Southern California, honestly,” he said.
And with a young team that just has one senior on the roster and majority of juniors, Fontenette wants his team to get exposed to tough competition as much as possible so that Valencia can be a better team than last year.
“The schedule I put this year, I knew they were ready for it, and I just knew people were going to sleep on us because we’re young,” he added. “I don’t think we’re like Harvard Westlake or anything like that, but my thought is, if you want to get to that level, don’t you think you need to play against that level? Don’t you think your players need to be exposed to that level?”
The Vikings have Chaminade and Taft scheduled after Thanksgiving, two Division 1 playoff teams from last year’s Southern and Los Angeles City sections, competition that Fontenette believes will have his team ready for when league play begins.
“I expect us to do great things going into the Foothill League play,” he said. “They are young but just teaching them how to navigate through life is just taking it one day at a time. It’s just stacking days. And if we are stacking up good days, we’re probably going to have a good season.”
On Saturday, the Vikings continued their winning ways with a 63-53 victory over the Agoura Chargers.
The Vikings were set to play another tournament game on Monday against the Pilibos Eagles.
