Merced Union High School District

After you win your first section championship in 37 years you definitely want to celebrate the accomplishment. That’s what Monday night was about for the Atwater High girls basketball team as they held a ring ceremony to commemorate the 2024-25 team that brought home the program’s first blue section banner since 1988.

 

Each player and coach was presented a championship ring prior to the Falcons game against Tracy. Players smiled, hugged and laughed as they received their rings in front of a large crowd at Falcon Arena. A senior captain on last year’s team, Karissa Hukill, addressed the crowd, showing appreciation for the community support the team received with a send off from school on the day of the championship game against Christian Brothers that included a police escort, a helicopter flying overhead and people lining the streets as their bus made the trip from Atwater to Golden One Center in Sacramento.

 

Hukill said the team was greeted with a sea of blue in the stands when they took the court to defeat Christian Brothers 65-49. “It was  like a home game,” Hukill said. Falcons coach JR Davis said the coaching staff wanted to do something special to honor the accomplishment. “It was something that we said that we were going to do, we're going to be dramatic and bring everybody back, and stuff like that,” Davis said. “I mean, we could have just handed out the rings when they came in over the summer, but no, I wanted a crowd, and I wanted it to be special for them. I know for me, I never got to experience anything like this as an athlete.”

 

As for Tuesday’s game, the Falcons cruised to a 50-41 victory over Tracy. Atwater jumped out to a 22-7 lead after the first quarter as their full-court press bothered the Bulldogs and forced turnovers which they turned into easy baskets.

 

Natalia Melgoza led Atwater with 17 points and Vanessa Chavez added 10 points as Atwater improved to 4-3 on the season. Davis says the Falcons are still trying to find their footing early on this season with so many new players. “Tonight was very sloppy,” Davis said. “We're at a point where we're trying to catch up, because we have a lot of new girls, and because flag football made a deep run, and they really had a lot of our girls, so we’re probably like three or four days behind. So we’re trying to balance conditioning and running plays so this week we’ll be good for us.”

The Falcons will be able to get some practice time in with a week off before their next game on Monday against Hoover. However, next week will be challenging with games against St. Mary’s and a tournament at Oak Ridge coming up. The players are working their way into roles on a team that features some key returning players in Saige Harcksen, Riley Leonardo and Melgoza.

 

“This year is definitely going to be a big change and something different, and we know that we have to work harder and push ourselves harder than we did last year. Our goal this year is to six-peat in the CCC. And as of right now, scoring is definitely not our biggest strength, but we’re there for each other, we have each other's backs. I'm excited for when we get to league and to see what we can do.”

 

Leonardo enjoyed hanging around her former teammates and finally receiving her championship ring. “It’s actually really cool,” she said. “Our team is a really special team. We have a really strong bond. We knew we could do big things and I’m glad that we did. Our community supported us. It was good recognition.” As for her impressions on the ring? “I love it,” Leonardo said. “It has my number, it has my last name and it’s blue, pink, white and red.”

Shawn Jansen is the MUHSD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.