By Cooper Chadwick
Senior Yasmin Gardea is excited to play her final year of high school basketball and is even more excited to play under Oxford’s new head girls coach, Shawn Burkes.
Burkes has been paying attention to Gardea and is very excited to coach an athlete as good as her.
”Watching her, she is a good athlete that plays the game with a lot of energy. She has qualified for state track the last two years in the 300m hurdles, so that shows me she isn’t afraid of hard work,” Burkes said
Gardea, who can play either point guard or shooting guard, last year earned all-league first team, and all-state honorable mention. Gardea also had a game where she scored 32 points and she’s excited to try to beat that goal.
Three-point shooting is Gardea’s bread and butter, but she is still wanting to improve on that and her ball handling to be a better point guard, and she’ll do it anyway she can.
“Shooting around at the park or school, I also looked up ball handling drills online and did those,” Gardea said.
Motivation to play the game comes easy for Gardea. It’s all about her constant want to get better every day.
As a senior, Gardea has to become more of a leader for a young Oxford team, and she is ready to do so.
“I am the captain of the team and team leader,” Gardea said. “The younger players look up to me as a role model.”
