MHS girls' basketball roster features many new names
Musketeers also have new head coach
By Thomas Gase tgase@theacorn.com

IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers COUNT IT—Moorpark High's Kaela Kawana, left, leaps to score as teammate Tara Noorani attempts to block her during practice.

The girls' basketball squad at Moorpark High has a completely new look this year.

Not only have seven of the Musketeers' 11 players from last season graduated, but Moorpark also has a new head coach, Libby Hare, who replaces Dave Murphy.

MHS has gone through numerous changes, but the team hopes to return to a familiar place—the postseason. Moorpark has made the playoffs in each of the past four seasons.

"I definitely want to get back into the playoffs," junior Tara Noorani said. "If we continue to work hard together and do a good job communicating on the court, I think we can get there."

Senior Kathy Ceja is playing with her third head coach in three years and has accepted the situation for what it is.

"I'm not as excited as I should be because it's my last year, but it is exciting to be with all these new players and basically help create a new team," Ceja said. "It's not that much of a shocker being with all these new players because I kind of expected it.

"What is weird is that I've grown up not only playing with former Moorpark players like Megan Natelson, Lauren Carter and Molly Carson, but also their opponents. It will be interesting looking across the court this season and not seeing the usual players go against us."

With Moorpark having lost its top three scorers from last year in Natelson, Carter and Carson, players such as Ceja know they must step up their offense contributions. So far, Hare has been impressed with Ceja.

"She's starting at the four, but she plays more like a three," Hare said. "In fact, we're going to have to play Ceja everywhere this season. She's got a great shot, and she's a big threat from the outside. Her experience also makes her a big leader on the team."

Another leader on the court is Noorani, who starts at point guard.

"She's our voice on the court," Hare said. "She's young, but the girls already have her respect because of her heart and her incredible work ethic. She's great at penetrating and then dishing it out. She has a great eye for looking at what the defenses are giving us and acting on it."

Noorani said she compares her own game to Natelson and twotime NBA Most Valuable Player Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns.

"I like Natelson and Nash because they are not selfish on the court," Noorani said. "I also try to be unpredictable to opposing defenses."

One of the players Noorani will have the luxury of giving up the ball to will be junior Lauren Rohach, who sat out her entire sophomore year on the varsity squad due to a knee injury.

"She's just it," Hare said about Rohach. "She's just an unbelievable talent. Her work ethic is second to none. Every day in practice she is the first one in and the last to leave.

"The first day back from her injury she was the first one in line to do 'ladders,' and she hasn't stopped playing hard ever since."

Other outside scoring threats for MHS include juniors Kaela Kawana and Jenna Cirillo, as well as sophomore Kaili Vitale.

Replacing inside talent like Carter and Jessica Kidder at the forward and center positions won't be easy, but it's a job Hare thinks sisters Lexi and Ariana Halamandaris can handle. Lexi, a senior, will start at center, while Ariana, a freshman, will likely play center and forward coming off the bench.

"The two sisters are very much alike," Hare said. "It's very easy to teach them on the court because the two of them already have this huge friendly competition between the two of them. They both want to be the best, and they use that as motivation."

Thus far the players are glad to have Hare as a coach. After they learned Murphy was resigning after one year, the Musketeers petitioned to have Hare as their next head coach.

"All the coaches I've had at Moorpark have been great, and Libby is just different from them," Ceja said. "We don't have the height on this team that we did last year, so we're looking to run. Coach Hare has done a great job getting us in good condition to do that."

Hare previously had coached the girls' freshman team at MHS before taking a year off last season to have a baby. Hare also attended Moorpark and played shooting guard for the Musketeers before graduating in 2000.

When Hare learned she received the job last spring, she was thrilled.

"It's been a dream of mine to be the head coach here ever since I was very little," Hare said. "Growing up in Chicago, I followed Phil Jackson coaching the Bulls, and I wanted to be just like him. The players have all welcomed me with open arms, and so have the parents."

Although Hare said winning is the goal, it's not the main focus of the squad.

"I do want to be competitive in our league, and I do want to make the playoffs, but not everything is about wins and losses," Hare said. "We have a very young team, and I want to develop these girls as people as well. There are so many life lessons you can learn from playing basketball, and I hope I can pass those on to this team."