Burroughs High connection paying big dividends for GCC Women's Basketball in 2021-22 season
Think about it. In the annals of basketball, has a player, let alone four of them, ever played on a team with their former high school coach and done it in a way that the word unique doesn't begin to describe the situation.
On any given night in the Verdugo Gym at Glendale College during the 2021-22 season, announcer Spiro Psaltis booms out the names of the starters for the women's basketball team, beginning with sophomore point guard and longtime John Burroughs High School Girls Head Coach Vicky Oganyan. Freshman Kayla Wrobel, GCC's leading scorer and rebounder joins her former coach as a starter as does Dyani Del Castillo, both 2021 Burroughs grads.
Reserves A'sia Morales and Sophie Hawkins take the court when GCC Women's Head Basketball Coach Joel Weiss motions them in to play with Oganyan or any combination of the former high school teammates. But all of the players agree that Oganyan was a factor in not only choosing to attend Glendale but to continue playing basketball at all at this point in their lives.
"Coach Weiss recruited me but the chance to play with Vicky was too good to pass up. She always jumped into drills with us in high school but to be her teammate is something way beyond that,'' said Dyani. "My goal out of high school was, and still is, to transfer to a four-year school but to continue playing basketball and do it with friends and my former coach is really special,'' said Kayla.
In a recent socially distanced interview, the teammates agreed about describing the challenges they have faced including the postponement of games due to COVID-19, but they all admitted that playing on a team that is 18-5 overall and 9-2 in Western State Conference Southern Division play and on the verge of a third straight conference championship has been worth it.
"I might be at a different school and not playing at all if there wasn't the opportunity to play with my longtime friends and teammates,'' said Sophie. "We are all just so close, not just us from high school but all of the players, doing stuff together off the court and then getting to play with them is a bonus,'' said A'sia.
But leave it to the veteran Oganyan, the 42-year point guard extraordinaire, who quarterbacked the 2019-20 GCC team to a school record 27-3 mark and joined the team as a player that season after three years as an assistant to head coach Joel Weiss, to sum up her feelings perfectly about playing with her former high school players.
"Playing with four of the players I coached is an awesome experience because I get to continue to share my passion for the game with kids I care about like my own,'' she said. "Being on the court with them as teammates just puts a unique twist to it and actually helps me grow as a coach because it helps me see the dynamics of seeing things through player perspectives again.''
A unique situation indeed.