'Just Wait 'Till Next Year:' Moorpark Hoops Has a Bright Future

Moorpark High’s boys basketball team’s season ended last Friday with a 80-39 loss to La Verne Lutheran, but the Musketeers have to feel good about the way the season went after finishing 19-9 compared to 4-22 last year and 8-19 in 2009.

“I thought we did a great job changing around the culture,” junior Jake Myers said. “It felt good to win some games because we only won one league game the year before, and it just felt good to play hard for our fans.”

Myers, Jordan Russell and several other top underclassmen are scheduled to return next season, and Myers believed the Musketeers are really onto something.

“We have a good core groups of that guys that played this year,” he said. “We’re hoping to continue with what we have to do a little better.”

Myers finished with an average of 11.4 points, and Russell averaged 10.0.

“I think we made some great improvement, and the team came together and just clicked,” Russell said. “Last year, no one cliqued and no one liked each other. This year was different. Everyone hung out, even off the court. I think we’re going to have a great team next year. We’re losing a lot of seniors, but we’re going to do some damage, and we’re going to have a good team next year.”

The 41-point loss to state-power La Verne Lutheran showed Moorpark where it needs to be to compete at the highest level of high school basketball.

“I think it was an eye-opener for our guys. La Verne Lutheran was kind of two levels from where we are and where the Marmonte League teams are,” Gutierrez said. “It was a whole different experience for everyone, which is good for us. We struggled so much the first two years, but this year we played some good basketball.”

This season, you can feel the difference in confidence every time you entered Moorpark’s gym.

“The turnaround was huge for us,” Gutierrez said. “It showed that if you put in the work and put in the time, it will pay off. We put more time in than we ever did before, and it really paid off for everybody. It gave us validation.”

The playoff win was Moorpark’s first in eight seasons.

“That was really good. We were really excited about that,” Gutierrez said.