While many families go on vacation throughout the summer, Coach Andy Meyer maximizes his time with the Malibu High girls basketball team.
For the first time in his eight years as coach, Meyer entered the Sharks into a Wednesday night summer league at Viewpoint High School. Malibu played six games against tough competition, giving the players the opportunity to play basketball again while reconnecting and developing valuable team cohesion.
“It’s been nice. We had enough kids to participate in a summer league,” Meyer said. “They worked on their skills and got to play against some real tough competition. I think they have become better because of it.”
Meyer doesn’t require his team to play 30 games in a six-week span as other programs might, but the Sharks convene once a week for games along with practices throughout the offseason.
Coming off a season where Malibu went 7-16 overall and 2-10 in the Frontier League, Meyer returns a core of players with plenty of game experience. Karen Sanchez is the lone senior with juniors Nina Hungerland, Kendall Jordan, Sara Joshi, Gianna Chaisson, Ana Cervantes, Alana Baer, Ari Ross and Hannah Hunter rounding out the roster.
With the exception of Hunter, who recently transferred in from Palisades Charter High School, each girl played on the varsity team last season. In fact, many of the players have been on the varsity since their freshman year.
“When I started basketball, most of us were freshmen. Since then, we have grown as a team together,” Hungerland said. “We have definitely become better and I am really excited for this year. We have kind of figured out what everyone’s strengths are and how to play well together. It’s going to be a strong season for us.”
“It’s been really fun getting back together and finding our groove,” Chaisson said. “Even if there is no practice, it’s cool to just call each other up and meet at MHS to shoot around at the gym. This was our first time being in this league so it was a good experience for us.”
One of the highlights of the summer was the second annual Malibu High School Girls Basketball Academy run by Meyer. The team spends one weekend together in early June sleeping in the gym to improve strong friendships on and off the court.
The parents catered breakfast and lunch and hosted a tasty barbecue dinner one night, with the other evening set aside for pizza and bowling.
“It’s a great team bonding experience. They get to know each other better and they have fun,” said Meyer. “We also work on basketball skills and they’ve become better basketball players. They enjoy it and it’s kind of a nice way to start the summer.”
Meyer also invited a special guest speaker each day. The first day featured motivational speaker Leroy Smith, who shared his story as the player who “beat out Michael Jordan for the last spot on our varsity basketball team.” Smith said “it ignited a fire which inspired [Jordan] to greatness.”
In 1978, Smith was the final player chosen to play varsity at Laney High School in North Carolina. Jordan played junior varsity instead as a sophomore and, well, the rest is history.
“[Leroy] told our girls to always have a good attitude. You never know how things are going to turn out,” Meyer said. “Work hard and you can succeed one way or the other. If you don’t succeed in basketball, work hard and you can succeed at anything.”
The following day, the Sharks welcomed the Pepperdine Waves women’s basketball team. The Waves worked with the girls on technique and fundamentals.
“They had a great time. The Pepperdine girls shared some motivational stuff and did some drills with our girls,” Meyer said. “It was nice for my players to see college players up close. We are hoping to have a relationship with their program to watch a practice or two and go to their games.”
