Culver City high school sports fans will get a rare opportunity to watch three different sporting events on campus Friday. The only problem is they will have to bring their own athletic shoes to keep up with the first two games of the evening.
At 6 p.m. the girls’ basketball team will play El Segundo in the Del Goodyear Gymnasium while the boys’ soccer team will battle El Segundo at 6 p.m. at the Jerry Chabola Field. The true hardcore Culver City fan will run back and forth from the gym to the field and watch both games…or pick one.
At 7:30 the action slows down to only one game when the boys’ basketball team faces El Segundo in the gym.
The girls’ soccer team will round out the Culver City versus El Segundo games on Friday when they travel to El Segundo for a 3 p.m. contest. The lady Centaurs are currently 6-3-2 and the Eagles are 4-2-4. All three games on the Culver City campus are expected to be entertaining as the lady Centaur basketball team is 7-9 and the Eagles are 9-7. The boys’ soccer team is currently 4-5-1 and El Segundo is 8-1-2 and the boys’ basketball team is currently 7-9 and El Segundo is 4-10.
The boys’ basketball team appears to be headed in the right direction despite the losing record. Their mental and physi-cal approach to the game has improved since the beginning of the season.
“When we started playing in the summer we weren’t very good,” said junior forward Kyle Johnson. “Now that we are get-ting more games under our belts we are starting to improve. We are practicing better and everyone is starting to come together. It’s a complete change from the summer. I just want to lead this team and I want to win.”
At the beginning of the season the young players on the team were not use to the pressure that comes with playing varsity high school sports. Now they feel more comfortable playing center stage.
“The more we play the better we get,” said head coach Adam Eskridge last week. “We still have a long way to go but the players feel like they can win now. The confidence and experience is really helping this team. They believe in each other now.”
Eskridge thinks he has found the right leaders to help his team navigate through the tough Ocean League that started this week.
“I am hoping Kyle, Darae (Thompson) and Isaiah (Njoku) will step up and be the leaders we are looking for,” Eskridge said.
The girls’ basketball team has lost nine out of their last 10 games but head coach Julian Anderson saw overall improvement during a loss to West Torrance last week.
“We played five times better against West than we have played in the last few games,” said Anderson. “At the end of the day when you lose to a good team and you play hard, I can live with that.”
With Ocean League play starting this week the girls’ team is also looking for players to step into the leadership role. Against West, junior forward Kailey Tooke elevated her game into the leader-ship category.
“It’s more mental than physical,” Anderson said. “Some of the girls are having a hard time real-izing that it’s their turn to step up and take responsibility and be a leader.” It’s hard to say if the girls’ basketball team was blinded by past success (30-0 the past three years in the Ocean league and they are the defending CIF champions), but they lost two key players from last year’s team.
“One of the things we want to do is run but because our team is not that deep we have to settle for a controlled fast break,” Anderson said. “I think this team can see how good they can be but we just need to turn that corner.”