High Intensity makes history with second straight unbeaten season
San Diego Sol girls basketball leagues have been around for some 12 years and in that time nobody has been able to do what the High Intensity program’s fifth-grade team did recently.
The squad completed its second straight undefeated season, beating the Poway Titans 21-14 in the championship game of the fall league at Alliant University on Dec. 7. The championship backs up High Intensity’s perfect run to the fourth-grade title last spring.
“We got this team together for the spring league and I thought it was only going to be for one year,” said head coach Chris White. “But the girls gelled and we had some success in the fourth-grade spring league so I guess we had to keep going.”
What makes the back-to-back, perfect seasons even more incredible is that High Intensity only pulls girls from the Poway, Rancho Bernardo and 4S Ranch areas while many teams in the San Diego Sol leagues pull from all over the county.
And to make it an even more magnificent accomplishment, most of the girls playing on the team are in their first or second year playing the sport. Many of them are soccer or softball stars first.
“For most of our girls basketball is not their primary sport, soccer is,” White said. “We have girls in soccer clubs and playing softball, but even though basketball is not their main thing they have stuck together last spring and this fall and now they are on board for the winter league.”
A big reason the team is able to stick together despite competing in soccer and softball is because the High Intensity program is geared toward allowing kids to compete in multiple sports.
“It’s the concept that they are still young and we don’t want them to hone in on one sport,” White said. “We want to fit into the calendar without being the emphasis, but at the same time provide a competitive atmosphere.”
The High Intensity fifth-grade team has five players from Poway and four from Rancho Bernardo. Many of them are highly-trained soccer players, yet are just as good on the basketball court with only a year of experience.
“These girls are competitive athletes in their respective main sports and I think basketball is just a natural easy transition,” White said. “I think we have success because they play other sports at an extremely high level.”
Jacey Farmer, a 4-foot-10 forward/center for High Intensity’s fifth-grade team, plays soccer at an extremely high level. She helped her San Diego Soccer club team recently win a title at the state cup tournament.
Farmer, from Rancho Bernardo, led High Intensity with 10 points in the championship game on Dec. 7. She also led the team in steals and was consistently the leading scorer this season.
“She is very athletic and very long,” White said. “She is just an amazing athlete.”
The march toward a third perfect season for the High Intensity fifth-grade team will start in the middle of January. That is when San Diego Sol’s winter league begins.