With the holiday break right around the corner, several Mission Bay winter sports teams have been busy as of late. In boys soccer action, the Bucs, under head coach Joe Panian, are 1-1. “The team is doing well, working hard to improve in certain areas,” Panian commented. “They dominated possession in both games, so their ball control has been solid. The team needs to work on possession in the offensive third, creating more chances, and putting away our chances in front of goal.” According to Panian, Enrique Moreno (center midfielder) and Victor Lopez (center defender and midfielder) have been the team’s standouts to this point. Mission Bay lost to Gompers 2-1 in its first game and defeated Madison 6-1 in the second. On the boys basketball court, Mission Bay, under head coach Marshawn Cherry, came into this week with a 4-1 record. The lone loss was in the championship of the Adidas Battlezone Tournament on a last-second goaltending call.  According to Cherry, the entire starting five have taken times making contributions to the wins. The starters are Boogie Ellis, Jaymarree Norton, Ronnie Latting, Andrea Scott and Savaugh Davis  “We have really front-loaded our early-season schedule to get us tougher going into the toughest league in the city and with hopes of it preparing us for a deep post-season run,” Cherry stated. In girls basketball play, the Bucs, under head coach Vince Ichihara, came into the week with a record of 1-2. After a big win to open the season, Mission Bay has dropped two in a row. “Against Castle Park, we led the entire game until the final minutes and were unable to close out the game,” Ichihara noted. “Versus High Tech High San Diego, while down 17 in the first half, we stormed all the way back and forced overtime, where we ended up losing.”
According to Ichihara, the team has received good leadership and scoring from junior guards Natalie Mcdermott and Brooklyn Grooms. Ichihara also noted that freshman Gwen Lundstrom has made a big impact to the team early in her high school career to complement the junior guards.  “While having some good leaders, this team is very young and is a few plays away from being undefeated this season,” Ichihara added. “We have a lot of growing and learning to do but the future is looking real great as we learn to close games.”