The North Hollywood Huskies faced off against the Poly Parrots on Friday, January 12, 2024. These two rivals had heated games on Husky territory. Boys’ soccer played at 4:30 PM, and boys’ basketball played at 7:00 PM.
As a student, you should come support the Huskies when they face off against our rival school. These games are heated, fast paced, exciting, and full of adrenaline. You never want to lose against your enemy, and these games determine who the better school is.
The basketball team is led by players such as Number 4, Jayson Cooper, who averages 9.7 points per game, has a 55% field goal percentage, averages 5.6 rebounds per game, and has the most points (175) and rebounds (101.) Number 0 Alexander Espinoza gets 1.7 assists per game, 1.4 steals per game, and has the most assists (30.) Number 1 Jordan Sales gets 0.4 blocks per game. Number 30 Darell Cervantes has a 52% free throw percentage, and has the most blocks (7.) Number 12 Alex Hernandez has the best three point percentage (32%.) So, our Huskies are a well balanced team, and their stats are very good for where we are at in the season.
For the most part, the Parrots’ super star player is number 2, JD Wyatt. He seems to be the center of every play. He averages 26.2 points per game, 1.8 assists per game, 1.3 steals per game, has a 79% free throw percentage, and has a total of 341 points, 23 assists, and 17 steals. He has help from people like number 0 Nathan Bravo, who gets him 5.1 rebounds per game, and number 22 Angel Guerrero, who gets 0.6 blocks per game. Bravo has a total of 61 rebounds, and Guerrero has a total of 8 blocks.
Unfortunately, the basketball team took a loss against the Parrots 50-52. However, the Huskies are preparing for their game away against the Parrots on Wednesday, January 31 at 4:30 PM.
The basketball team knows that they’re a phenomenal team despite the score, and despite their overall success being 7 wins and 15 losses. They have the guys that can do the job. The team just needs to put that into fruition by practicing and being a family on the court.
Number 0, Jordan Sales explains, “Like every game, we want to come into the game focused and determined, we need to have a sense of urgency and keep the energy up for 4 quarters.”
Number 3, Caymen Smith adds how “…as a team I’d say it’s as simple as everyone needs to step up and contribute, in either a positive or neutral manner. Personally I’m hoping I can actually be a leader in the next game and take on the challenge of guarding JD.”
Number 20, Lucas Gonzalez gives an explanation about how, “I think we just need to come in with more energy and play as a cohesive unit the entire game. We need to keep bench energy high and not fold under the pressure of playing in their gym. As an individual I just want to push the pace of the game as much as possible, run back on offense and defense hard, and try to move the ball efficiently on offense.”
The team is organizing a game plan to make sure they’re doing well defensively and offensively. The team watches film on the other team avidly enough to know the other team’s plan/play.
Head Coach Donovan Womack goes into depth about his game plan how the “gameplan defensively is to force someone to score the ball other than their best player. He was able to score over half of their team’s total points. We need all 5 guys on the court to focus defensively and be aware when the other team’s best guy has the ball. It’s been a struggle for our team all season to defend the other team’s star player. Offensively I feel like we have to remember to flow like water within our offense. Luckily since the Poly game I feel like we’ve found consistency in 2-3 players consistently leading us in scoring which helps any team when they know where the points will come from. For myself, I will continue my effort to find the best rotation of guys that can play on both ends of the floor. It’s a never ending chess match for coaches when you are looking to find the best ways to approach games against rivals like Poly. Our programs know each other well, sometimes too well. I always look forward to the challenge of competing against high level coaches and hard working programs such as Poly.”
Boys soccer, on the other hand, came out of a seven year drought against the Poly Parrots on Friday, January 12, 2024 at 4:30 PM.
The soccer team won against the Parrots 1-0 thanks to Number 9 James Travers for scoring in the first half. The Parrots are definitely the toughest soccer team in the league, so the Huskies are definitely on track to become undefeated in league. Their overall score so far is 5 wins, 3 losses, and 2 ties. In the East Valley league they have 4 wins and 1 tie.
The team didn’t have players such as Narek Djavadian and Jonah Dayan who are the strikers for the team. So, the next game won’t be so easy for the Parrots considering the fact that our strikers will be in the game. The team did a phenomenal job of playing defensively on January 12, but they’re looking forward to playing a lot more aggressively offensively on January 31.
Number 10, Narek Djavadian said that, “I find this to be an opportunity to surprise the opponent, as they have never played against me before. I’m excited to face them, and hopefully score a goal or two. Poly will be a tough match, I’m sure, but personally, I just want to help the team achieve the best that we can. I’m sure that we can defeat them again, as we have before.”
The soccer team tied against Chavez High School 4-4 in an intense match on Friday, December 1, 2023 at 4:30 PM on Chavez’s field. Their next match against Chavez will be Friday, January 19, 2024 at 4:30 PM on Husky territory. Therefore, we’ll see how our huskies do to become undefeated in the league.
Star players on the North Hollywood Huskies are Number 28, Joseph Lainfiesta, who averages 1 goal per match, Number 23, Justin Kim obtains 1 assist per match, Number 10, Narek Djavadian who has a total of 5 goals, and Number 6, Anthony Diaz who has a total of 4 assists.
These Huskies have been striving under the management of Head Coach Barba, and their goal and mentality for the rest of the season – and especially their next game on Wednesday, January 31, 2024 at 4:30 PM against the Parrots on their field – is:
Number 28, Joseph Lainfiesta said that his “mentality on that game is I’m all ready and hyped to play a team like Poly knowing their history we beat them once with the team we have I know we can score more than 1 goal and plan is just to go in and play our game the game plan we’ve always gone into every game and individually prepared knowing what I have to do and leave on the pitch to get the three points we need.”
Number 6, Anthony Diaz expresses how “…going into the rematch game against Poly, my mentality is to play hard until the rivals are full of fear. In the last game we did well defending, but in the next game we want to dominate on the other side of the field, offense. Although a tough match is expected as the league title is at stake, I want to leave it all on the field and win my individual duals.”
Number 23, Justin Kim said how his “…mentality against Poly is to prove why our team deserves to be first in the league and I see it as another step in our season. My plan as a team is to win CIF and my plan as an individual is to contribute to the best of my ability to make sure that goal happens.”
