Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Basketball Champions: The Del Mar High School Lady Dons varsity basketball team, made up of 12 members, had a phenomenal season with an overall record of 21 wins and 6 losses and a league record of 11 wins and 3 losses.
Del Mar High School's girls team, the Lady Dons, have successful year
It's all about attitude, believing as a team, and love of the game
By Moryt Milo
For the Del Mar High School girls basketball team, the season came down to a final five seconds.
Last week, while the rest of the school was on midwinter break, the Lady Dons were playing the first round of the Central Coast Sectionals at home against the Seaside High School girls basketball team. With the score 49 to 50, Del Mar needed one basket to win and move into the CCS quarterfinals, but the ball bounced off the rim and the season was over.
Although the season ended with a heartbreaker, the team had a phenomenal year, finishing with an overall record of 21 wins and 6 losses and a league record of 11 wins and 3 losses, tying them for first place with Leigh and Piedmont Hills High Schools.
But for five of the players-Morgan McGill, A.J. Galloway, Justine Stagi, Stacie Sakauye and Namsah Kargbo-it's their last time playing together. All five seniors are graduating this spring.
Game night was especially difficult for Morgan McGill, 17, who was this year's leading CCS scorer, and unable to play due to a severe ankle injury, which happened during her final league season game against San Jose Gunderson High School, on Feb. 14.
In the Gunderson game, McGill chipped and fractured a bone in her right ankle.
"I was fouled and I came down on another player's foot and felt my ankle crack and pop," McGill says. "But I wasn't going to let them carry me off the court. I wanted to walk off by myself."
The Lady Dons' varsity coach, Reggie Synegal, 43, who also coached McGill at Campbell Middle School as a sixth-grader, said he knew it was bad when she didn't jump right up.
"This time it was different," he says. "But she tried to tough it out and kept playing. She was a real trooper."
Although she was hurting, McGill was determined to finish the season, with her team, on the court.
"I was sad because I knew, as a senior, it was my last game, and I wouldn't be able to play in CCS," she says. "This was the first time in my fours years at Del Mar that we were hosting the game at home."
Ironically, the reason for Del Mar hosting the game was because McGill had been CCS's leading scorer. Now she had to sit on the sidelines and watch her teammates try to win it without her.
"I think if Morgan had been able to play, she would have taken the lead and made the baskets in the first half," Synegal says. "It would have put the rest of the team at ease."
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Top Scorers: Del Mar High School basketball captain and star player Morgan McGill, No. 11 (left) dribbles the ball during the Los Gatos High School basketball team.
During the season, 17-year-old McGill was stuffing the baskets on a regular basis, averaging 23 points per game. She had a phenomenal year. In the four games played during the Oak Grove Holiday Classic last December, she scored a combined 85 points. In the regular season she scored 51 points in back-to-back games against Prospect and Santa Teresa High schools.
Del Mar assistant coach Bill Murray, who has also known McGill since the sixth grade, says, "Her junior year at Del Mar was her breakout season. She knew she had it, but she didn't want to be perceived as a ball hog. Finally her self-confidence kicked in."
As a junior, her average leaped from 15 to 23 points per game, and as her game exploded on the court, her confidence and leadership also grew, Murray says.
Although she is a dynamo on the court, she is less assuming off the court, Del Mar High School Principal Dr. Lisa Udell says.
"Looking at Morgan you wouldn't think she plays the way she does," Udell says. "She is very humble, a really nice kid, and a good student."
Her mother, Colleen, says Morgan is a natural athlete with an optimistic attitude. McGill also made the Del Mar Hall of Fame in Field Hockey.
"Sports is where she gets her self-esteem," her mother says.
For McGill, playing on the Del Mar team has been a special experience. During her freshman and sophomore years she tried transferring to Westmont High School. In the summertime, she played basketball at Westmont with friends from Campbell Middle School. Many of them ended up going to Westmont as freshmen.
"I really wanted to go to Westmont. I didn't know anyone at Del Mar," McGill says. "The first four weeks at Del Mar I was really lonely and depressed."
But asked why she thinks the transfer never happened, McGill grins and says,
"I don't think they liked me."
Instead, Justine Stagi, who had played with McGill since the seventh grade, transferred to Del Mar for her junior year, and suddenly Stagi, with a talent for hitting three pointers, and McGill were back together as juniors. Then A. J. Galloway returned after moving to Manteca because she missed playing with her Del Mar teammates and something magically started happening.
Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Outstanding Athlete: Del Mar High School girls' basketball team captain Morgan McGill, the star of the Lady Dons, was this year's Central Coast Sectionals leading scorer.
"Our team has something special," Stagi says. "We are not afraid to tell each other anything."
She describes their connection as eerie.
"It's weird, but we just know what the other is thinking when we are on the court," she says.
For Synegal, he's watched a talented group of girls bond together and give 100 percent every time they take the court. Talent and attitude have consistently allowed them to maintain a high level of play, Synegal says.
With only eight varsity girls--unlike many schools with larger squads of 15 players--these girls have had to go the extra mile. Lots of teams struggle when they only have nine or 10 players, Synegal says. It's not uncommon for smaller teams to battle injuries, substitution problems and personality issues, but at Del Mar it hasn't happened.
"I feel really fortunate to have this great group of girls," Synegal says. "They all feel and care for each other."
It's that sense of caring that the players and coaches believe has led to the team's success on and off the court.
Galloway wanted to get sweatshirts for all her teammates. McGill brought balloons to Stagi when she was sick. A.J. felt so connected to her Del Mar teammates that she moved back from Manteca to play, and Synegal brings the team his love of the game and passion for having fun. It is all part of what made for a successful year. It has also bonded the older players with the younger players, like sophomore phenomenon Ali Mollet, who game after game fearlessly drives down the court to make seamless lay-ups.
During the past season, she and McGill have been scoring demons, and it has led to a mentoring relationship during the past two years.
"Morgan is one of the nicest people I know," Mollet, 15, says. "She helps you with whatever you need and whenever she can."
Mollet knows she will be stepping into McGill's shoes next year, and taking over the team's leadership. She is excited and looking forward to the challenge, but when McGill was injured in the last game of the season, Mollet was suddenly thrust into the limelight sooner than she had thought.
"I knew I would be stepping up next year," she says. "I just didn't know I would have to step up seven months earlier."
Without McGill on the court for the CCS game, it was a tough role to assume. The team played with heart, but it was difficult with their star player sitting on the sideline. Yet during the second half Del Mar fans watched the momentum shift, as the Lady Dons continually stole the ball away from their opponents and exploded down the court, making lay-ups, three pointers and free throws. It was a game and a season that burst with emotion.
Now with the season over, each girl has time to reflect on the year and their future. For McGill it's bittersweet.
Campbell, California
