Road Trips Abound For Socorro Girls

By John Severance

SOCORRO -- You can call the Socorro girls basketball team the “Road Warriors.”
Their first 10 games are scheduled for the road and they will not play their first home game until Jan. 2 when they host Las Vegas-Robertson.
On Dec. 3, the Warriors travel to Las Vegas for the Brian Gallegos Invitational.
“The people in Socorro won’t see us until 2010. So we have 19 road games this year and seven home games,” said coach Joseph Garcia, who is entering his 20th season at Socorro. “ That’s a record. It breaks last year’s record of 16 road games which no teams – boys or girls – has ever done.
“Thank God, I have eight upperclassmen, because on the road with pressing, you’re going to get a lot of foul calls on the road so that worries me having to go on the road. It could be interesting,”
And with so many road games, that also makes for a tough schedule. Garcia said that will help as they get ready for district play down the road.
“Talk about a tough schedule, you look at our schedule and the tournament we go to and the teams we play,” Garcia said. “District teams will be better finally, for a change. Hopefuly, barring injury from key girls, we should be right there in the mix.”
Garcia said the Warriors return four starters from last year including seniors Brittany McDaniel, Tristen Peralta, Jaden Jones and Roxanne Silva. Garcia said Samantha Sedillo likely will be the fifth starter.
“The girls seem to be in as good a shape in a long time,” Garcia said. “A lot of them played volleyball, a lot of them played soccer so that helps out. Hopefully, we can do a little more pressing than we’ve done in the past. But since we are so small, we need to try to pick up the tempo a little up the court and in pressing.”
Socorro and Garcia also will be counting on Silva to have another stellar season. “Roxanne, regardless of class, is probably one of the best players in the state, because she can play inside and play the outside. She can dribble the ball. She’s a tough player.
“She’s on pace to break Audra Major’s record for career scoring, the rebounding record and the steal record. She’ll break three major records this year.”
Nicky Romero contributed to this story.

Road Trips Abound For Socorro Girls