The Wyoming-bound bus full of anxious SKC women basketball players had to turn back this past weekend due to an emergency in head coach Juan Perez’s family.

Explaining that family comes first and that his team understood, Perez took the time talk about coaching, his team, and some volunteer efforts of the SKC basketball program.

The team has a record of 1-3 right now, the victory coming in overtime against the University of Great Falls on Nov. 15 at home in Pablo. 

Perez said the opening matches have given him a better feel for the team, a better idea of the direction he wants to take, and a clearer picture of what needs to be done out on the court.

In his seventh year as the coach, Perez has learned to work out the kinks. Right now he said his team is focusing on making better game-time decisions and most of all learning to control the ball. Turnovers have caused them problems early in the season, he said.

Already seeing adjustments come alive in play, Perez said the lessons of the first three losses were taken to heart by the women in the fourth game, when better ball control and a focus on capitalizing on the turnovers of their opponents let the SKC women pull out the win. It was a much needed one.

Another factor, an important one in any basketball game, was defense.

The SKC women play a matchup zone. The idea is to lock on tight with any opponent who comes into a player’s designated area and stay on them until they clear out of that part of the court. It is a demanding defense and Perez said the girls executed it well in the home win, finding new energy in the stand against the Great Falls attack.

The zone has been Perez’s defense of choice coaching the womens team and said whether or not his team hits its assignments can make or break a game.

“It’s when we run it the way we’re supposed to, we’ve done really well,” he said.

He knows that his team is limited by its height and that center Karla McClean sometimes has to take on two of opponents’ bigger players at once down low.

Perez said that with a healthy team, he thinks his team can go places. With several players out sick or injured the past weeks, he is ready to regroup with all of his women, the confidence from the win, and see what happens.

He said the team has a good core, from hometown heroes like Charla Brown who played her High School ball at Two Eagle River School right in Pablo to Dani Augare of Browning, who has come to SKC for to study Elementary education, participates in a variety of extracurricular activities, is an AmeriCorps participant and has lit up the scoreboard in her last two games.  

After a bye, next week they go to Walla Walla to play Walla Walla Community College and Portland Community College.

Walla Walla is a good matchup for the team, Perez said, saying that last year his team gave them a run. Point guard Ida Mountain Chief was having a great game, making her shots and feeding the ball in low until she turned her ankle. Perez said the injury took the wind out of the squad and Walla Walla was able to roll to a win.

Besides basketball, Perez has been encouraging his team to do some community outreach as well. With past teams, he has asked his teams to spend some time reading with kids in local elementary schools a couple times a year. This year, he’s working with SKC mens coach Zachary Camel to get players into the school at least once a month, he said.

So far players from his team have visited two classes in Linderman and he plans to send the whole team into Ronan elementary schools on Dec. 3. The players just hang out with the kids and read.

Perez said the purpose of the program is to encourage reading in the schools and teach his players that they are more than just athletes – they are role models.  

Perez tells his players, “Basketball is only there so long but life and the things in life are there for a lot longer.”