Burbank has a new group of champions. The Burbank Pride girls basketball team, the champions of the 7th/8th grade division of the Park and Recreation Department league, won the SCMAF (Southern California Municipal Athletic Federation) San Gabriel Valley Region “A” division championship tournament this week in Azusa. They now advance to the SCMAF State Tournament in Downey April 9-10.
Teams can only qualify for the SCMAF tournament by winning their local Park and Recreation championship. The Pride did that by winning the Park and Recreation championship with an undefeated 14-0 record. They opened the regional tournament with a hard-fought 32-19 victory over Alhambra. In their second game, they dismantled Duarte by a score of 49-6, a team which defeated perennial power Pasadena the day before.
In the championship game, they were matched up against a tough Temple City team. However, Burbank was not to be denied and it was apparent early in the game that Burbank wouldn’t be beat. They played tough man to man defense and thoroughly frustrated Temple City in taking an early 20-7 lead at the end of the first quarter. The rest was history as the girls from Burbank won in dominating fashion 48-21.
The Pride is now 17-0, and will be a tough draw in the State Tournament in two weeks. All the girls on the team are local Burbank students, and have worked very hard to achieve so much success. The members of the team are (with their school in parenthesis): Teeana Cotangco (St. Francis Xavier), Delaney Nicol (Jordan), Maile Tanigawa (Jordan), Davina Del Castillo (Jordan), Kaitlin Okimoto (Muir), Fabi Jimenez (Muir), Janae McGee (Muir), Jordan Meltzer (Muir), Jade Teetsel (St. Robert’s). Coaches: Doug Nicol & Wesley Tanigawa.
Congrats to all the girls on the Pride. Come back to Burbanknbeyond.com to keep up to date with the progress of the Pride as they represent the City of Burbank in the State Tournament April 9-10