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SAN DIEGO – After finishing the season 3-19, the girls basketball team at Point Loma High School is off to a hot start this season.

The combination of a new head coach and the emergence of a star point guard has made for a renewed culture, one that breeds winning.

“I just really love to play basketball and it’s just so nice that I got this opportunity to play with my team at this school,” said point guard Sadie Heckman. “Everyone is so nice here, it’s just I feel really blessed to be playing here.”

The sophomore Heckman averages 20 points per game and according to her coach Leroy Alecia, she’s the best player for the Pointers.

“She’s not self-absorbed,” said Alicea. “She doesn’t really care what her stats are. All she cares about is winning or losing and that’s the mantra that I’ve told all the girls. We don’t care who scores how many points or who does what, we just want to win the game.”

Outside of high school, Heckman brings plenty of experience from club basketball.

“She definitely has a lot of good fundamentals that some of us don’t have because we’ve never played club team before,” said forward and co-captain Jessie May. “She’s really good at knowing all the basketball IQ and having experience in that.”

Heckman earned the title of co-captain this year and says being a leader means making sure no feels left out.

“I try to make sure everyone feels included so when we’re running a play and something goes wrong, I don’t try to get particularly mad at that one person,” said Heckman. “I try to address everyone as a whole and say this went wrong, what can we do better.”

Although she has more experience on the court than her other teammates, Heckman’s humble attitude and lead-by-example approach go a long way with her team.

“I didn’t really know what I was doing but now that she’s on the team, I think that we work really well together and she helps me on the court and I feel like I show her how we’ve done it in the past,” said May.

“I’m just really honored because a lot of these girls are older than me and they know a lot more about the atmosphere that we’re playing in,” said Heckman. “They still look up to me because of what I’ve done on the court and that’s just really inspiring for me to keep going and persist and get better as a team.”

The Pointers hope that type of teamwork will lead them to an Eastern League title this season.

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