While Saturday’s preseason scrimmage doesn’t count in the standings, the Fremont Firebirds varsity basketball team can certainly take away a plethora of positives. The informal scrimmage game on Nov. 22 came with the Firebirds missing one of their key players in four-year varsity star Jiyah Caban, and yet Fremont still managed to outscore the Menlo Atherton starters by four points through three quarters.

Fremont held a 37-31 lead until a buzzer-beating shot pulled the Bears within 37-33 headed into the fourth quarter. In the fourth quarter, things got out of hand as the Menlo Atherton starters continued to see playing time while Firebirds Head Coach Miguel Castillo used the quarter entirely for his bench unit to get live action. The lopsided final score in favor of the Bears, 61-42, doesn’t tell the story whatsoever. The Firebirds look strong. 

It looks like a team fully capable of building upon last season’s 6-6 record in league. Even without Caban, the Firebirds demonstrated the ability to score inside and outside. Starting center Ada Johnson showed herself to be a force in the paint. The 6’1” junior isn’t alone down in the paint either, as fellow junior Nora Whelan checks in at 5’11”, and the forward showed she could bang the boards while also hitting from beyond the arc. Whelan got the Firebirds off to a 5-0 lead in the first quarter. After knocking down a pair of free throws, she followed up with a nice give-and-go sequence into the post with Johnson, where Johnson eventually kicked it back out to Whelan for a wide-open corner three. 

“I think we have really good chemistry,” commented Johnson after the scrimmage. “We work really well together. Nora and I have been together for three years, that chemistry is there for sure. Inside we work well and then the outside shooters get good shots, so it’s working well.” 

One of those outside shooters is yet another junior in Addison Wong. The 5’2” guard drained multiple threes in Saturday’s scrimmage. 

“I feel like we still have a lot to improve on,” admitted Wong. “But we’re definitely doing some things really well. It’s only my second year on varsity, so I’m not an experienced player myself. I think we can work on our defense a lot more and communicate on the court. We are really strong though as a team and we’re all really good friends off the court which helps on the court.”

Johnson and Whelan are also helped out with sophomore Kenza Hakem, the forward checks in at 5’10” and gives the Firebirds solid depth when it comes to bigs in the paint. Combine those three with Caban and primary ball handler Vivian Lee, who is also a fourth-year varsity player, the Firebirds have a tremendous mix of skills and can play smaller or bigger if needed based on their opponent. Coach Castillo sounds more than happy with what he saw from his group on Saturday. 

“I am pleased, Menlo Atherton has some good athletes, some girls with good skills and we did a pretty good job on them,” chimed the head honcho Castillo. “We’ll work on some defense stuff. We’re doing some different things from last year on defense. Offense is always the last to come; we are starting to look for each other more and be patient, but I’m pleased, I’m definitely pleased.”

Fremont will play four non-league games, the first on Nov. 29 against Menlo School. They will begin league play Jan. 3 when they host Milpitas.