Benefield: Taking it one game at a time is working out for Sonoma Valley girls basketball team

At just about this time last year, the Sonoma Valley girls basketball team had to do a little soul searching.

Loaded with talent and upperclassmen, the defending Sonoma County League champs were struggling. So coach Sil Coccia brought in an alum from the program to talk about commitment and passion. The team had a come-to-Jesus meeting and eventually turned the season around, finishing tied with Analy as SCL champs and earning a spot in the North Coast Section tournament.

Fast-forward to this season and this crop of Dragons has endured a similar, albeit not identical, early-season stumble.

And what makes this significant is it’s an almost entirely new team and a new coach.

Jann Thorpe, who took over the varsity team this season after 13 years at JV, inherited a team that returned just four players. Gone was the league co-MVP and co-defensive player of the year. Gone, too, was the Dragons’ height.

“I knew we had a lot of holes to fill,” Thorpe said.

But what she had as building blocks were first-team all-league post player Grace Cutting and first-team all-league guard Amy Stanfield. She also had a crew of athletes she knew well from her time at the JV level as well as her job coaching hoops at the middle school.

“They are a very supportive group, a very close group,” Thorpe said. “I think our chemistry and our closeness gets us through a lot of games.”

But that didn’t come right away.

The Dragons opened the season with a 54-27 win against San Rafael before getting thumped 60-29 by Tamalpais. They then beat Deer Valley of Antioch before dropping four games in a row to Drake, Montgomery, Napa and Windsor.

That brought about kind of a make-or-break time. Just like last year. And just like last year, the Dragons decided to make it.

“At the beginning of the season we did have a few losses and it kind of shook our confidence a little bit, but you could see that despite the losing, every person still had this drive,” said senior post player Alanna Johnston.

After their four-game skid, the Dragons again beat Deer Valley, but this time by a greater margin. Then they beat Napa 43-25 just four days after they had lost to the same squad 45-42.

Things were turning around.

“We were off to a rocky start at the beginning,” senior guard Kayla Field said. “I think that was us trying to get on our feet.”

They got their footing, all right.

They brought an eight-game win streak into a key league matchup with Analy Jan. 9. It was a game to decide the front-runner in the SCL.

At home, the Dragons beat the Tigers 49-31. After beating El Molino Tuesday night, Sonoma Valley is on an 11-game winning streak and has not dropped a contest since falling 57-50 to Windsor Dec. 8.

“That game was a turning point,” Field said of the Analy game. “Everyone was there, their mindset was there. I think it was for sure the turning point in our season. It can only get better from there.”

“They came focused,” Thorpe said of her squad that night. “They came with it. They brought everything that was on the game plan and they executed. It was probably our best game of the season. I learned what we are capable of doing that night.”

Field said this squad was able to right the ship after four consecutive early losses by banding together, by not losing faith.

“We kind of did it naturally,” Field said. “How far can we push ourselves? We took that (Analy) game as one and we did what we were supposed to do. And we won. And we had fun, too.”

At 13-5 after Tuesday night’s contest with El Molino, it would be fair game for the Dragons to start looking down the road, to the potential for a three-time league championship title or to another NCS bid. But despite the tear her team is on, you won’t hear that from Thorpe.

“The most important game is the next one,” she said. “We have the second half of league, we have the league tournament. I keep them focused in the now, not what’s going on ahead.”

She paused.

“I’m very superstitious,” she said.

But there’s no bad juju about what the Dragons are putting together. Field and Johnston said it comes down to hard work and buy-in.

“Sure, we may have lost so many people, but we built this team this year and it’s coming together,” Field said.

Just in time.

You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com, on Twitter @benefield and on Instagram at kerry.benefield. Podcasting on iTunes and SoundCloud “Overtime with Kerry Benefield.”