Image From WHS Girls Basketball Instagram (@whsgirlsbb)
Washington basketball player Jordyn Yamaguchi recently reached the 1000 point milestone at Washington High School, playing for all four years of her high school career. Her team, which is currently 9-3 in the league and ranked 189 in California, congratulated Yamaguchi on this milestone.
In a 46-22 win against the Kennedy Titans, Yamaguchi reached this extraordinary milestone. Playing basketball ever since Kindergarten, she has played in AAU leagues such as Asian Ball, an all Asian League. Being a captain, Yamaguchi feels the responsibility to lead the team. The team feels and looks closer than it has in a long time. “It motivates them just to show them that when me and Mikaela are gone they will have the opportunity to also score and play how they want to play,” she says.
Yamaguchi feels confident about the team she has this year, and she wishes to make one final push into the NCS. “I think so far this is our best season, at least for the four years that I’ve been here,” she says. “We have a winning record right now, and we have new coaches this year so it’s a good opportunity, but our team’s also closer than we’ve ever been before and we’re all friends so it’s been a really good year.” Even if things do fall short, Yamaguchi wishes to continue her basketball career into college. With a recent offer to attend UC Santa Cruz, Yamaguchi will decide on her future by the end of the season.
When asked about the pressures of being a captain, Yamaguchi explained that being a leader means you have a big influence on the rest of the team, knowing that if your morale is down the whole team’s morale goes down with it. “I think the hardest part is just being able to perform well and not get down on myself when I have a bad game because it just reflects onto the whole team,” she says. Having a big role, she pushes herself for the better of the team.
Yamaguchi’s teammate Mikaela Dumagan also recently hit the 1000 points mark. Like Yamaguchi, Dumagan played all 4 years on varsity at WHS. Knowing that this is their last season, both of them want to try and lead their team to a winning record and a high seed going into NCS.
Makoa Naraval, a sophomore, is entering his first year of working at the Hatchet. He is excited to get work done and ready to work on the newspapers published. Makoa likes to talk about sports, about personal and school life, and events that recently happened at school or anywhere in the world. Naraval was on the Freshman 2023-24 Basketball Team and is currently playing for the Junior Varsity Football team. His plan after high school is to attend Ohlone Community College for 2 years and transfer to a bigger college, preferably San Jose State University or University of Hawaii Hilo.