The gyms got bigger, but the results stayed the same for the West Sedona School and Big Park Community School basketball programs Tuesday, Nov. 10.

“I think it’s good for the boys, more than me,” said Mauro Trahin Jr., new head boys coach at West Sedona School, after a 34-10 loss by his A team at Sedona Red Rock High School. “Just for the fact that they can get used to bigger crowds and people being the sixth man for me, getting in the action off the sideline, going ‘ohh,’ ‘ahh.’”

Jackson Coughlin outscored the Wildcats by himself, totaling 14 points, while fellow eighth-graders Christian Bohme and Michael Lagorio added eight and seven points, respectively, to lead the Coyotes.

“Nothing was working tonight,” Trahin said. “Layups weren’t going in, free throws were missing, jump shots weren’t falling either.

“I’m not upset about it. Their attitudes were right.”

Nevertheless, while second-year head coach Andy Galley and his team were excited about playing in the main SRRHS gym, he felt the Wildcats out-hustled his A team. Galley has nine players each on his A and B teams this season.

“We have a lot of work to do,” he said. “Both teams are young, [and] they’re learning.

“What I’m most proud of so far is that we have, I believe, six kids on the honor roll.”

Trahin’s initiation to head coaching at West Sedona School was “a rough loss,” he said — especially missing seven of his players due to academic ineligibility, with the result being no B team after just six total practices.

“Other teams have been going for a month-and-a-half,” he said. “One or two quit; I haven’t seen them since.
“They went through hell week, the first week — which is the hardest week — like nothing. They missed the easy week, just learning the game.

“What we’re struggling with is grades, more than anything.”

Eighth-graders Dylan Beattie and Jose Loreto, the most experienced of the Wildcats, impressed Trahin the most of his 16 players, combining for seven points.

“There’s times where I look on my bench and there’s guys that are face-down,” he said. “They’re really sad. Some of them are really heartbroken about the loss.

“I look at Dylan and Jose, and they’re like, ‘Let’s keep playing.’ The rest of the players worked hard. They need to keep their heads up.”

After moving their opener to SRRHS, the West Sedona girls team did show a four-point improvement over the two teams’ previous meeting.

Unfortunately for Wildcats head coach Donna Wiseman, the difference between 45-4 and 46-1 won’t be enough to close any other measurable competitive gaps.

“I’d say we’re really in a learning mode,” she said after getting points from eighth-grader Odalis Robles, seventh-grader Audrey Veliz and sixth-grader Julissa Galaz. “We’re working and playing really hard. We do the best we can. We have a lot of fun.”

While Wiseman was impressed by the ball movement and hustle of sixth-graders such as Galaz and Emma Beattie, none of her 22 players in the program are as prolific offensively as Coyotes eighth-grader Mary Westervelt, who was two assists short of a triple-double Nov. 10.

“I told Mary, you’re going to play with those girls next year in high school,” head coach Kirk Westervelt said. “You don’t want to embarrass them.

“Now, Clarkdale and Camp Verde, we put the heat on.”

For the full story and more photos, please see the Wednesday, Nov. 11, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.