Grossmont Girls Up and at 'Em: Off to Promising Start in Basketball

Megan Long isn't making any predictions for her Foothillers, who return four starters from last year's 13-15 team that split two postseason playoff games. But Long, in her third year as Grossmont High School girls basketball coach,  has to be pleased with the team's start.

Following a recent 61-57 nonleague overtime victory over Olympian High School of Chula Vista, the Foothillers were riding an 8-3 record.

Nobody in the East County has a higher win total heading into the post-Christmas tournaments.

"We've established a trend, which is not all that good," Long said. "It seems like we're always able to take the early lead but then we let teams back into the game. And then we have to scramble at the end."

Good thing the Foothillers are able to amp up when the game is on the line.

Grossmont has a consistent 1-2 scoring punch in 5-foot-10 senior forward Teyshonnia Bealer-West (15.5 points per game) and 6-foot junior guard Danielle Dahle (11.8 ppg). The same duo leads the Foothillers on the boards with Dahle gobbling up 7.9 caroms and Bealer-West snagging seven rebounds per outing.

Both are returning veterans, along with senior starters Chloe Cook and Christa Sawyers. Both Cook and Sawyers have had their moments where they've made noteworthy offensive contributions to the Grossmont totals.

Junior Ashley Hargrove is also a returning letterman who has missed a handful of games this season due to injury. She figures to share starting chores with Katarina Schweitzer, also a junior.

Perhaps Grossmont's top newcomer is freshman guard Carly Lopez.

"She's been averaging about 16 minutes per game as our sixth man," Long said of Lopez.

Grossmont will rise with the chickens (or maybe even before the rooster crows) in its next tournament—the Aztec Holiday Classic at Montgomery High School beginning Monday, when the Foothillers take on El Camino (2-2) at 7:30 a.m.

"Guess we'll be getting up early that day," Long said. "But think about [Oceanside's] El Camino—they'll probably be getting up at 4 a.m. I know my girls will have to be here early but hopefully they'll come ready and play hard. Then I'll buy them breakfast and send them home to get some sleep."