An Arvin basketball team is proving you don't have to be blood to be a family. "We're really close. We've been together for a long time," said senior forward Vanessa Adams.
But as long as they had been together, and for that matter the more than 65 years Arvin High School has been around, a girl's basketball team had never won a league title outright. That is until this week when they beat Wasco to finish 12-0.
"It took a lot of work from all the teammates and we all wanted the same thing so it was really good when it all happened," said Adams.
But that's not to say that there wasn't plenty of pressure every game that they remained unbeaten. "We knew that second round everybody was going to just come harder to us," said junior center Brianna Mendez. "Everybody was going to be more of a competition."
And if there's one player on Arvin's team who knows all about that competition it's someone who's had to fight for every possession.
"Being her size, if i were in her position i would-i don't know what i would do," said Raleigh Tarver, a junior shooting guard.
Senior Vanessa Adams is the listed at just 5"7 but at the forward position has to match up against the biggest player on every team. While she's just averaging six points per game it's what the box score doesn't catch that her teammates appreciate.
"It's crazy how aggressive she is and she just brings a lot of heart to the team," said junior point guard, Catti Sidney. It's behind her heart on the court that Adams is hoping to lead the Bears to even more success in the playoffs in their search for a valley title. "It really helps me a lot when I see her going after balls so the more I see her doing things I feed off that energy," said Tarver.
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