SANDIA IS SET TO DEFEND THEIR TITLE
With seven players returning from last year’s state championship squad, the Sandia girls basketball team is considered by many to be one of the teams to beat this year. “It’s an extremely veteran group,” said head coach Lee Kettig. “There’s four seniors that are all going to play in college at different levels and there’s people behind them that are going to play in college as well. To have that in a public high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico means that we have a really good team and really special team.”
Two of those special players share the same last name. Senior Sydney Benally and her freshman sister Kaiyah are two of the top players to watch. “What’s striking about it is they are very, very similar and very, very different,” explained Kettig.
Sydney was last year’s Gatorade New Mexico Girls Basketball Player of the year averaging over 20 points a game. She recently committed to play basketball at Princeton. “With my sister being on the team, she’s a oint guard, we play the same position, so I’m able to work off ball and play the 1-5 position if needed to,” said Sydney.
Kaiyah is described as a lock down defender and wants to improve her offensive output. “I feel like I’m more a shooter because during last year were saying on offense I wasn’t really that good and it motivated me so much that I want to show them,” said the freshman.
“She’s an elite on-ball defender,” Kettig described Kaiyah. “She’s also very good on the ball herself, and her sister would tell you that because her sister is her training partner.”
“It’s very competitive, we get on each other,” said Kaiyah.
“I think it’s great having that sister bond,” said Sydney. “We’re with each other 24/7 so there’s that chemistry. We’ve gained more confidence in each other.”
Coach didn’t waste any time putting his team to the test. Sandia opened the season with a win against perennial power Hobbs. “I just want to set up as many good games for this group to play as possible,” said Kettig. “Win or lose I enjoy watching them play.”
Win or lose, coach wants to try and keep the kids humble. “We’re never at a point where there’s not stuff for us to improve and we try to come in every day and worry about us.”
Sandia will take on Atrisco Heritage this week before a road trip to Las Cruces to play Mayfield and Centennial.
