Girls and boys basketball teams earn valley championship title

This article is the second of the new series entitled “Sports Records”. For the last article, read Sports Records Series: Soccer. Follow The Feather for more articles in the series as they are published.

The sound of the net swishing and the squeaking of shoes on the court echo in the gym as the basketball players compete to surpass records before them. With both boys and girls basketball teams competing in the East Sierra League, they strive to earn the valley champions title and succeeded in doing so.

The boys varsity basketball team began their season coached by Jon Penberthy, with the help of Mike Neal, Jason Saelzler and alumnus Nick LeBlanc. The team exceeded in their league, ending with a 9-1 record and becoming the East Sierra League champions.

The team headed to playoffs with a No. 10 seed and traveled to Orange Cove High School for their first playoff game, Feb 14. Their season unfortunately came to a close after they lost to the titans 92-74.

The team consisted of 11 players, with five seniors and two freshman. One particular freshman, Tyus Parrish-Tillman, ranks second in the nation for blocks and broke the records for most blocks in one season. Parrish-Tillman talks about how he feels about holding this record and his favorite thing about playing basketball at Fresno Christian.

“I was really surprised,” Parrish-Tillman said. “I did not even think that I would be second in the nation for blocks. Personally, playing a lot of defense and being really tall helped my reach this achievement. I like playing at Fresno Christian because I get a lot of playing time. The fans and my teammates make it really fun as well.”

The girls varsity team is coached by Robert Foshee, along with Mike Zamarripa. The team competed against five other teams in East Sierra League for the league champions spot heading into playoffs. The girls ended league with a 9-1 record and became co-champions, tying with Wonderful College Prep Academy.

The girls team received a No. 14 seed and traveled to the No. 3 seed, Chowchilla High School for the first round of playoffs. After a long battle, they lost 53-37 and were knocked out of playoffs, therefore ending their season.

The girls team consisted of 13 players with six seniors. One particular senior, Ashley Zamarripa, tied a record in girls basketball for the amount of three-pointers in one season in her last game against Chowchilla.

The following infographics shows records from girls and boys basketball since 2004.

Sports Records: Basketball by Megan LeBlanc

Ashley Zamarripa played on the varsity basketball team for all four years of high school and earned the captain position her last two years. Zamarripa knew that if she scored three more three- pointers in her season, she would tie the record. This sparked an eagerness in her to tie the record and end her last season with this special achievement.

In the following podcast Megan LeBlanc talks to Ashely Zamarripa about tying the record and what she did to complete this accomplishment.

This author received all information and statistics on the MaxPreps website. If any data needs to be changed, leave a comment and the author of this article will fix it.

This is the first article in the new series entitled “Sports Records’’. Follow The Feather for the next article in this series entitled Sports Records: Baseball.

For more article read Sports Records: Soccer and BLOG: Girl Talk-Preparations for formal

Megan LeBlanc can be reached via email and twitter.

Slideshow images from FC girls and boys basketball games

Gallery • 15 Photos