Just about everyone knew that for any freshman making the team playing time would be limited.
However, long before the first basketball was dribbled, everything was signed off to create a boys’ freshman team.
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Following two weeks of tryouts, 10 freshmen were selected to represent Half Moon Bay on this year’s team.
The team played its first games last week. The Cougars are scheduled to play in the San Lorenzo Valley Tournament, starting tonight.
Ochoa got the call from Rich Forslund, a longtime Coastside resident and retired coach at Riordan. At the time, Ochoa was an assistant coach at Westmoor.
“The coach there (Herb Yaptinchay) was OK with me leaving for this,” Ochoa said. “I knew there could be a program here because of the numbers.”
When he was the coach of the frosh-soph boys’ basketball team at Half Moon Bay, John Parsons Sr. would never cut players. One year, he had 23 players on the team.
The Cougars do some of their practices at Sea Crest School, paying rent. Ochoa understands the issue with a single gym. When he was a freshman at Serra, his team would practice outside.
The numbers are not a problem and will not be a problem for a while.
“I get a lot of signups and I don’t even advertise for the teams,” said Joe Hagarty, the athletic director for the Catholic Youth Organization program at Our Lady of the Pillar.
CYO offers basketball for players from grades 3-8, with each team having about 8-10 players per squad. Despite the lack of publicity, each grade has about 30 players, with Hagarty creating three teams per grade.
“If we had more signups, it would be challenging to get gym time,” Hagarty said.
Forslund also knew it would be a matter of time before the boys’ team began. An insurance man in the real world, Forslund hosts some of the basketball camps in the summer.
“There have been more and more kids who have signed up for the camps,” Forslund said.
Creating a new team was more challenging because the school budget continues to get tighter. This year, the budget from the Cabrillo Unified School District to the school’s athletic department was cut by more than 40 percent.
“We were able to get clearance from the school and the district,” Forslund said. “But we are getting no funds.”
Parents put up some of the money, and a fundraising event last month raised more than $4,000.
The players still have to pay the $125 fee to play, as do all the other school’s athletes.
None of the parents mind the extra fees to play for the freshman team.
“We want to give them a chance to play,” said Chris Dobbrow, whose son is on the team. “It’s also good for the future of the program.”
The players are just as happy to have the opportunity to play.
“I didn’t think there would be a freshman program,” said player Tom Howell. “About half of us have played on the OLP teams.”
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