On March 26 the MacArthur’s boys basketball team competed against other intermediate schools at Segerstrom High School at the Santa Ana Unified School District Intermediate Tournament.  MacArthur played against Esqueda, Carr, Willard and Lathrop and ended with a 2-2 record, finishing fourth overall.

According to Coach Mr. Daniel Villagomez, the toughest competition for the boys was Carr, and one of the losses was to Carr Intermediate.

MacArthur’s fourth place finish ended a streak of five consecutive championships. Villagomez is proud of his team and can not ask for more.  “First place did not matter,” said Villagomez; he only hopes that the boys had fun.

According to Villagomez, the team could have done better in parts of the game by improving their ball movement.  He believes that the team gave it their all and put their hearts into the game.

Ignacio Salazar, eighth grader, was singled out by Villagomez as the MVP of the team. However, Nate Lomeli, eighth grader, scored about six points every game, scoring the most points out of all the boys.

Eighth-Grader Isaiah Tapia said, “We tried to play with all our hearts.”

The boys practiced everyday after school except Wednesday on the blacktop.  Many tried out, but only 13 made the team.  Villagomez appreciated that many boys went and tried out to represent MacArthur and that doesn’t mean they won’t get a chance to make the team next year when MacArthur looks to return to its winning ways.

Villagomez looked for players who listened, gave effort, and were passionate.  He said, ”I think the most important rule is to play as a team because not one guy can win alone.”

Villagomez chose to coach boys basketball because he loves the game and some of the boys were asking him coach.  He also plans to coach boys basketball next year.  If he does coach basketball next year he will try improving the offense by adding more plays, and practicing more game-time situations.

Although this was Villagomez’s first year coaching basketball, this was not his first year being a coach or playing basketball. He has coached football for four years and played basketball for two years.  Being a player and a coach of basketball he thinks the players should interact outside of practice to have a better connection.

Eighth-grader Rodrigo Barwick is proud of the team, but he knows they could have performed better.  Rodrigo said, “I feel that I could’ve done better as an individual, but the team could have also done better as a whole.”