This years Mendocino High School basketball team, the Cardinals, are half way through their season and have been keeping spectators on the edge of their seats as they crush the adversaries they meet at every turn, continuing a nearly undefeated season. As they move forward, they will have to maintain the energy, teamwork, and discipline that has taken them this far, if they hope to be crowned league champions and dive into playoffs with a fighting chance.

The team’s first battlefield was down south in the small town of Pescadero. Every year the town hosts a small invitational tournament, which Mendocino has been part of for the better part of the last decade. The Cardinals have won the last three years in a row and returned this year as the defending champs, determined to maintain their title.

Over the course of the two days, the team grew together, getting used to one another on and off the court. Nizz Badgett echoed this sentiment saying, “Even though I didn’t play, and I think Francis feels the same, I really felt like part of the team after the trip.” Playing big schools from down south, the team had to work together and out hustle a lot of good teams with skilled players and hungry coaches. In their first three games together, the Cardinals flew in harmony and managed to walk away from the tournament with their title still intact and spirits high, looking forward.

With a few days of recovery and practice, it wasn’t long before the Cardinals were thrown back into the wind, entering the local Potter Valley Tournament. The first two wins were a breeze, with Mendocino dominating the scoreboards, leaving no chance of hope for their opponents. On the other side of the bracket rose Upper Lake, a bigger, higher division, well coached, and disciplined team of well rounded athletes. It was the first real challenge Mendocino would face, and going into it, the team was excited for the competition, determined to continue their winning streak. However, things don’t always go the way you want and Upper Lake ended up winning the game. They came out hot in the first quarter, knocking down seven 3-pointers in a row, and maintained a lead that Mendo could not get back from. “It was f***ing ridiculous” said Cody Call, in reference to their shooting. With Upper Lake coming out so strong, the deficit Mendocino found themselves in was hard to combat, and the team was unable to find the energy and momentum with which they had dominated so many of their previous games.

This was the team’s first lost and a hard blow to take, and ended up being even harder to recover from. The previous loss lingered in their mind, serving a blow to their confidence and energy for the next few games. Their loss against Upper Lake started an unfortunate losing streak, with Mendocino losing both of their next two games against Point Arena and Sonoma Academy. The Point Arena game was Mendocino’s first league opponent, and the loss was a brutal fluke for the team. Due to the unfortunate state of the Point Arena school system, this year many of its prior students had transferred to Mendocino, two of which were in fact on the basketball team. Although the Point Arena transfers were not yet eligible to play, the game held high tensions and rivalry. It was a close game in which Mendocino held the lead, but lost it at the end as one on of the Point Arena players caught fire, scoring fire 3-pointers in the last three minutes.

After that brutal loss, Mendocino put their heads down to the grindstone, knowing they would have to refocus their energy and teamwork in order to win the rest of their games and become league champs. Their next game, the Point Arena transfers were finally eligible and the Cardinals swept Potter Valley at the first home game of the season. From there it has been nothing but onward and upward, with the Cardinals flying to the front of the flock, beating all opponents who have faced them since and currently holding an eight-game winning streak.

However, the coach is making sure to keep the team grounded and focused: “I’m very happy about our last few games don’t get me wrong, but as my old coach used to say, we are very, very ripe,” said Jim Young, the varsity coach, referring to a concept he learned from his old college coach. The concept relates a team to a fruit, getting ripper and ripper each game until they fall off the tree, perhaps to teams that shouldn’t be able to knock them down. However, the team refuses to make the concept valid. Having found their flow once again, the team is set back on track and have had energetic and exciting game after game. With their recent redemption against Point Arena, beating them by almost 40 points in a heated and aggravated game, Mendocino is 4 wins away from becoming league champions. If everything falls their way, Mendocino is looking very likely to have a good position in playoffs, with high chances of going very far.

This year’s team has time and time again shown their teamwork, tenacity, and sportsmanship as they have moved as a cohesive unit through the season. It’s fair to say many spectators, students, teachers, and community members will continue watching, excited to see where the Cardinals will land as they fly forward, nearing the end of what has been a spectacular season.