Boys basketball ends their season with a phenomenal record

Ayushka Chethan, Staff Writer

March 4, 2024

Senior (from left) Patrick Ladrido, Johnathan Lozano, Jaydin Maddox, and Christian Martinez stand together for one last home game picture before playing Alta Loma in their senior night.

Boys Varsity Basketball ends their Palamora League Season with a record of 7-3 and an overall record of 18-11. The team moved up to CIF playoffs but unfortunately was eliminated in the first round. Soon-to-graduate seniors and varsity players include Jaydin Maddox, Christian Martinez, Patrick Ladrido, and Johnathan Lozano, who share their thoughts about the season’s ending, and their accomplishments of the season.

“I think our greatest team accomplishment this year was learning how to play together,” senior and team captain Christian Martinez shares. “a lot of people came and left during the summer, but we ended up learning how to play together as a team.”

Sophomore and starting varsity player, Joshua Townsell, also shares his insight on their team accomplishments from the 2023-2024 season.

“This season, I think we wanted to accomplish more,” Townsell states. “But I think we did a good job with the schedule we had and we just need to improve next year. This year we had a good win in Glendora but we just need to improve on getting some more wins for next season.”

All teams can improve their abilities to become better together, and work harder as a team for future seasons. Head coach Sameer Bhatt and Townsell, also share their thoughts on what the team improved on from last season to this season, and what some long term goals are for boys varsity basketball.

“I think I can see that everyone puts more care into us this year,” Townsell said. “Last year we were still a team, but I think this year proved us much closer, and we are more locked into what we want to achieve this year.”

Head coach Sameer Bhatt pitches in to add in how the overall traits and values of the team has transformed within a couple of seasons.

“I think the culture of the program has changed significantly,” Bhatt said. “This year’s team is a lot closer and tight-knitted together, and that’s something we want to carry on going into future seasons.”

Coach Bhatt continues to say how they hope to remain competitive and make CIF playoffs as they have for the last four years in a row. The team dynamics have seemed to change dramatically as the team feels they are able to gel well together than they did last season.

The coaching staff shared how the average GPA for the team this season was a 3.0, and Coach Bhatt explains how they are hoping to improve their academic performance from a 3.0 into a 3.2 for next season, so they are equally as competitive on the court as they are off the court.

The achievements of our Bulldog’s varsity boys basketball team includes two wins against the Colony Titans, two wins against the Claremont Wolfpack, one win against the Glendora Tartans, and two wins against the Alta Loma Braves. They won numerous other games against non-league teams including Don Lugo High School, Marquez High School, Del Norte High School, Ontario Christian High School, and many more. However, they unfortunately ended their season run in the first round of CIF Division 2A Southern Section Boys’ Basketball Championships against Palm Springs High School.

This season’s team dynamics and accomplishments throughout tournaments, league games, and all losses and wins are ones that all varsity freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and graduating seniors will remember. They continue to train and work for the upcoming 2024-2025 season starting in December for a new team with new goals in mind.

About the Contributors

Ayushka Chethan, Staff Member

Ayushka Chethan is a sophomore reporter for the Bulldog Times. This is her first year as part of the Bulldog Times staff and she is excited to challenge herself with new writing techniques and learning about different interviewing styles she can use when preparing for writing an article. Ayushka looks forward to working in the sports department and hopefully publishing many articles having to do with many sports she is familiar with such as football and basketball. Outside of working in journalism, Ayushka is part of the girls JV basketball team, and enjoys spending her free time watching highlights from recent NFL or NBA games. Ayushka enjoys listening to music, sketching, hanging out with friends, and going to games with family.

Avery Rosas, Editor-in-Chief, Sports Editor

Avery Rosas (12) is the Editor-in-Chief and Sports Editor for the Bulldog Times. In his third and final year on staff, he hopes to grow the publication’s reach by diving deeper into the stories that make our school, and our students, unique. Avery is very culturally centered from his proud Mexican heritage and, as a result, is heavily involved in the World Language programs at the school. He hopes to influence others to become proud of their cultures while also respecting those of others. His immersion in his Mexican culture is seen in the altars he constructs for Dia de Los Muertos and heard in his never-ending Latino music playlists, his daily soundtrack consisting of anything from Natalia Lafourcade, Pedro Infante and Los Panchos to Romeo Santos, Caifanes and Los Angeles Azules. However, his biggest passion, seen in his writing and known by those around him, is baseball; more specifically, his darling Los Angeles Dodgers. Baseball is the center of Avery's media consumption and his immersion in the sport has allowed him to meet people across the country who deepen his understanding of the game and generally just enrich his life. His proficiency in baseball and sports writing as a whole has allowed him to enjoy some of the proudest moments of his life, the biggest of which was ranking Excellent in Sports Writing during a trip to the JEA/NSPA competition and convention held in San Francisco in April 2023. This year, he's hoping to further improve his writing skills and reach Superior for his final high school competition. Despite this being his last year as an editor for the Bulldog Times, he hopes to impart his passion for the program onto his underclassmen staff members and show them the beauty of what the Bulldog Times can do for writers and collaborators during their high school years; he also took the liberty of drastically surpassing the word count for his staff bio because it's his last year. Every moment, every article, every quote, and every word given to the Bulldog Times by Avery has been the legacy he hopes to leave to future student journalists and the higher standards he hopes to bring for the publication. And of course, he couldn't have done any of it without his mentor, advisor and friend, Ms. Eileen Tse, whom he will miss very much when he eventually leaves the Bulldog Times.