After their 25-6 overall record from the 2024-2025 season, the Piedmont High School girls basketball team is going for it again, this time shooting for a Division 1 state championship.
The team is trying to build off the momentum from last year,” girls basketball coach Bryan Gardere said. “We knew we had a young team with a couple seniors, and then obviously they graduated, so the team is still young.”
While the team has a young and only nine players on the roster this year, Gardere said they are incredibly talented: “We probably have six college basketball players on our team.”
Gardere said that even with these small numbers, the girls are very competitive, as evidenced by their fierce commitment to bring their best: “The hard work that comes with it, it’s not for everybody.”
Gardere said that of the nine players, six of them are returners.
“I think all six are going to do something different, something special,” he said. “They’ve really expanded their games already. We started three freshmen last year. One was the MVP of the league, (Jenelle Solis), as a freshman, and she has been working really hard to take a big leap.”
Some of the other returners will also be making an immediate impact.
“Andrea Martin (above), size wise and athleticism, she’s going to help take care of the ball as well,” Gardere said. “Savannah Dennig, who was kind of like our glue person, do the dirty work, she worked (in the off-season) on her ball handling and her shooting. And then Taylor White, who’s one of our main defenders, but also a good ball-handler, strong with the ball, big guard, and then Saniya Johnson is really continuing to improve. Alexa Ba is going to force peoples’ hands for sure.”
Some of the big events for the team include the Paris Twins Classic tournament hosted by Piedmont before they go to San Diego for a 100-team tournament, followed by league opponents like Bishop O’Dowd and Alameda. The team has been training in the off-season to prepare for this season’s success.
“We spend so much time, open gyms, weight room, yoga, stretching,” Gardere said. “We do (training) for four or five days a week during the off season and then obviously during the season, it’s five to six days. Generally, (the team) lifts two or three times a week.”
Gardere said he significantly values the team’s time in the weight room. “We’ll have a two-hour practice slot, we’ll give up 30 minutes for the weight room and we’ll only have an hour and a half on the court,” he said. “But for me, we feel it’s important to continue it, so (we) can try to be as strong as you can, especially late in the year when you’re trying to win the state championship.”