The first thing to notice when you watch Templeton play is that the team is long and athletic with multiple players being able to make an impact on both ends of the court.
“I think we have some extreme length this year that gives us the opportunities to do some things defensively, that other years we might not be able to do,” Head Coach Lawren Ramos said.
He's right. With a small school like Templeton, it's anomaly to feature roster with players six feet and over including three starters that are 6'7, 6'4 and 6'9.
But in their second year under Ramos, the Eagles are more than just height; they are the truest form of a team with the ball moving side to side to find one of the many scoring options on the floor.
“It's pretty easy to pass up a semi-contested shot to get somebody else an open look because we all want to see each other succeed,” senior Quincy Winkler said.
“Everyone is very skilled, so I think it's not like they can just triple team somebody and leave everyone else," senior Ryan McNamee added. "I think it's a good group all the way through.”
They were only made a good group with the countless hours they spent in the off-season to make sure they didn’t waste a golden opportunity to turn heads.
“There were moments where they looked at me and said, We're going to do what, coach? I said, this is what we're going to do but at the end of the day, they said they saw the value in it and how much that, that prepared us.”
It's paid off so far as they continue to win and make some noise on the central coast.
“Coming from a small place like this, all you want to do is win because we're trying to compete with these other big schools," junior Trevon Carter Givens explained. "We're not really well known out here. We feel like underdogs.”
At 14-5 on the season, the Eagles are already on pace to break the single season wins record of 21 from the 2004-2005 team with McNamee poised to be one of the top scorers in school history in addition to him and Carter Givens also expected to be in the top-10 for rebounds in a single season.
“We have chemistry from over five plus years together," Carter Givens said. "When we out there, we're having fun.”
While the Eagles are enjoying the success right now, all that truly matters is attaining their first ever CIF championship, something Ramos and the team are very open about.
“Some coaches don't talk about those things. I'm a coach that we're going to talk about what the expectations are and where we should go.”
All the kids agree they can make a run in CIF, but first they'll have their focus on winning league.
“I think we can go to the CIF playoffs," senior Kyle Long stated. "We're going to do our best to win the league and then I'm hoping we can hang up a banner for the first time for basketball.”
