by Amelia Santillan - February 8, 2012

Last night was Parents night as well as the last district basketball game for our high school Pirates. On what turned out to be a very emotional night for our Lady Pirates, the last game didn't go as well as the fans would've wanted. As our starting five walked out on the court with excitement the Lady Bears showed them they came to win.

In the first quarter, the Lady Bears managed to score 23 points, while the only one to score for the Lady Pirates in the first quarter was senior Cayenne Webb with 3 points. The second quarter was better for the girls as they stepped it up a bit, point wise, by adding 9 more points to board with 7 points by junior Kimberly Morton and 2 points from senior Amelia Santillan.

Unfortunately for our Lady Pirates, it wasn't enough to take a lead as the Lady Bears showed their claws by scoring 8 more points to make the halftime score 31-12. As the third quarter continued so did the lack of defense for our Lady Pirates. The Lady Bears managed to score 15 points in the third quarter and 24 points in the fourth quarter. While the Lady Pirates had only 7 and 4 points.

The final score was 73-20, with the Lady Bears taking the win from our girls. Through ups and downs our Lady Pirates improved this season and everyone is extremely proud of them. It showed during the Parents Night ceremony. With our four seniors, Adriana Rangel, Nicole Campbell, Cayenne Webb, and Amelia Santillan graduating this year it is very uncertain how long it'll be until Valentine has another Lady Pirate Basketball Team. But what is certain is how proud everyone is of their effort. Congratulations to the 2011-2012 Lady Pirates.

by Adriana Rangel - February 6, 2012

On February 7, 2012, the Lady Pirates will be hosting the Balmorhea Bears. Tip off is at 6:30. The Lady Pirates lost by 6 points to the Lady Bears by a score of 28-22. Our Lady Pirates will play hard tomorrow. "One thing that we do need to fix is our passes and work the ball faster.” says Nicole. Amelia added, " It was our mistakes for our past two horrible losses, so we need to fix them.”

It will be the last chance for the Lady Pirates to get the big "W”. In the last game against the Lady Bears, Cayenne Webb came out in the Pecos Enterprise newspaper, photographed guarding #23 Kendra Ramos.

This will be last game for our Lady Pirates for a good while. There won't be enough girls in the High School for the next couple of years to make a team. Tomorrow will be a very emotional and thrilling night for our four senior girls as it is their last basketball game and for Kimberly and Maria as well. Kimberly will be playing with the boys team next year, it will be a big change for her, but we are sure she will adjust.

Tomorrow night is parents night in Valentine. The Pirates thank their supporting parents. We hope to see all our Pirate fans and parents up the stands! GO MIGHTY PIRATES!!!

"It's been a pleasure playing with y’all ladies for the past four years, I really enjoyed it.” - Cayenne Webb

"I want to thank you girls for giving me the last BEST basketball season, I couldn’t have asked for the most joyful, amazing, weirdos, to play with my senior year, love y’all!! In perspective on tomorrows game lets play hard and go out like champs!” - Adriana Rangel

"I'm gonna be super sad after tomorrows game, because there wont be another High School girls basketball team for awhile. I've really enjoyed playing with everyone, I will really miss it!” - Nicole Campbell

"It's been so much fun playing ball with these girls for the past three years. Especially because I never thought that I would ever play basketball in my life. I will miss it. I am lucky to have had the chance to play with these amazing girls.” - Amelia Santillan

"It's been good, hard, and long seven years with Coach Bea, I'm going to miss playing with these girls especially Adriana, we've been playing together since we were in 5th grade and I'm not ready for it to be over quite yet :(! Things are going to change but I'm exited for next year's challenge playing under Coach Mac, he's a great coach and I cannot wait till he makes me a better player!” - Kimberly Morton

"Tomorrow's game is gonna be really sad. I'm going to miss playing and I'm going to miss the girls too. I had fun playing playing and now I love basketball. This was my first and last year to play and I enjoyed it. I might cry tomorrow, but I will give it my all for our last game!” - Maria Borrunda

by Adriana Rangel - February 1, 2012

The lady Pirates got blown away against the Lady Vaqueros last night (1/31) in Sierra Blanca, with the score of 55-10 . Kimberly and Amelia were the only ones that scored. Kimberly with 8 and Amelia with 2 points. The Lady Pirates did not play well these past two games.

There is only one more game left in the basketball season and the Lady Pirates will be making changes on their offense before next Tuesdays game against the Lady Bears. Coach Porras kept telling the girls to meet their passes and move and get open on offense, the Lady Pirates started doing better in the fourth quarter, but it was too late in the game. The Lady Pirates need to go into the game ready to play some basketball all four quarters.

Amelia says " After this last blow out we must work our hardest this week because our last moment to shine on the court for us seniors is this Tuesday. We need to play our positions to the best of our ability, like never before. Stay ball hungry and really go after it. So then if we win or lose it won't matter because we'll know we gave it our all and shined brighter than a star on that court. Personally I'm ready to work, when I walk off the court next Tuesday I want to know I shined.”

The Pirates are hosting the Balmorhea Bears next Tuesday, February 7, 2012, tipping off at 6:30. It is the last game of the Basketball season and also Parents Night, hope to see all our supporting parents in the stands and enjoying a Travel Class cheeseburger!!!

by Kimberly Morton - January 30, 2012

The Lady Prates (0-5) played the Ft. Davis Indians last Friday (1-27) and it didn't turn out to well, the score was 72-32 with Ft. Davis taking the 'W.' The Lady Pirates scored all of 6 points the first quarter and allowing the Indians to score 25.

Second quarter was the same with the lady Pirates only scoring 8 and Ft. Davis with another 25. The third quarter wasn't all bad the Pirates scored 6 and let the Indians score only 12. Fourth quarter was a lot better the ladies grabbed 12 more points and the Indians only scoring 10.

The High point scorer for the Lady Pirates was Kimberly with 17 points, followed by Nicole, Amelia and Adriana with 4 points. The Pirates were having an off game, it was visible to everyone apparently. "They lacked on defense and couldn't buy a shot.” said a Pirate fan. Nicole Campbell #14 said "our defense sucked and we didn't shoot as much as the last game which really hurt us.”

"We just need to step on the court ready to play and step up our game, we only have TWO games left the that's it for the "Lady Pirates” we need to end on a good note.” said Kimberly Morton. There's ONLY TWO games left of the year! Tuesday (1-31) The Pirate boys and girls will head to Sierra Blanca, TX for another district game starting at 6:30 pm. Last time they played here the SB girls gave it to the Lady Pirates pretty good and the Pirate boys beat their boys by 40, Lets hope for the best! Come show support!

by Adriana Rangel - January 25, 2012

The Lady Pirates lose to the Dell City Cougars, last night (1-24) in Dell City. This game went well for the girls everyone stepped up and played their all. Nicole with 8 points, Kimberly with 7, and Cayenne , Adriana, and Amelia with 6 points each. The score was close throughout the whole game, the Lady Pirates played their hardest throughout the game. Cayenne playing sick, coming down with the flu, played her hardest.

In the fourth quarter, the score was 33-30, Dell City with the lead, Kimberly gets sent to the free throw line and misses one but makes the other, that leaves the Lady Pirates 33-31. The lady Pirates did not give up with Adriana shooting from the wing and making the shot to tie up the game at 33-33, with less than a minute left in the fourth quarter. The Lady Pirates are on defense when Amelia fouls, sends a Lady Cougar to the free throw line, she misses. The Lady Cougars rebound the ball under their basket, Amelia fouls again, the Lady cougar made both of her free throws. The Lady Pirates loose 35-33.

The Lady Pirates are 0-5 in district. The Pirates will be hosting the Fort Davis Indians, on Friday, January 27, 2012. Hope to see all our Pirates fans up in the stands enjoying the games and a delicious cheeseburger, from the Travel Class.

by Adriana Rangel - January 23, 2012

On Friday January 19, 2012, the Lady Pirates traveled to Balmorhea to play their fourth district game. The Lady Pirates played very hard, the final score was 28-24. Balmorhea Bears take the win. Kimberly Morton was the top score of the game for the Lady Pirates with 17 points, Nicole Campbell 2 points, and Cayenne Webb with a 3 pointer!! Cayenne says "I didn't expect it to be a 3 pointer, I just shot the ball.” The Lady Pirates defense was better this game, all that hard work in practice payed off.

The Lady Pirates are 0-4, in district. The Lady Pirates will be traveling tomorrow January 24, 2012, against the Dell City Cougars, at 6:30 our time. The girls only lost to the Lady Cougars by 7 points las time. The Lady Pirates have a good chance of beating the Lady Cougars tomorrow night. Hope to see all our Pirate fans in Dell City, Texas, supporting our basketball players.

by Adriana Rangel - January 19, 2012

District game number four is in Balmorhea, Friday, January 20, 2012. The Lady Pirates have already played the Lady Bears, in the Marfa Tounament only losing to them by 7 points. The Lady Pirates believe they can play hard against the Lady Bears. Every game is different for the Lady Pirates, something is always off either their free throws, shooting, and defense.

Cayenne says "I believe we can do better against the Bears then last time we've played them.” Nicole also says " We have been practicing very hard on are defense during P.E. and in practice.” We hope the girls can put all together and play as a team. The Lady Pirates are 0-3 in district.

Like Coach Porras says " y'all girls are like the Little Train that could, y'all just have to get that through y'alls heads, because I can see what y'all can do as a team.”

We also want to wish the Pirates good luck on Friday, the boys are 2-1 and Aaron Morton says " ...and about to be 3-1 if you know what I mean.” Aaron is looking forward to the Friday night game because we didn't have a game Tuesday and he likes to play twice a week. The Pirates play hard all the time. I'm more than sure they will bring home the big "W”

by Adriana Rangel - January 11, 2012

The Lady Pirates come up short once again, with the score of 59-27 .The Lady Pirates played the first half very well, the score at halftime was 20-17 with Fort Davis Indians taking the lead at the half. After half time the Lady Pirates let the game slip through their hands with lots of turn overs and not being able to break the Lady Indians press. Kimberly Morton was the high scorer with 18 points but fouled out in the middle of 3rd quarter.

The Lady Pirates have to step up their game.Finally at the fourth quarter the Lady Pirates were able to put up some shots with Adriana, Amelia and Nicole scoring 2 points each and Cayenne getting sent to the line to shoot free throws making 3 of them. Its like Coach Porras said to the Lady Pirates, "playing the first half good, and not playing well the second half does not bring a W (win) at the end of the game.”

The Lady Pirates are now 0-2 in district, third time is a charm, the Lady Pirates will play their third district game on Friday January 13, 2012, starting at 6:30 against the Lady Vaqueros. Good Luck Lady Pirates!

by Adriana Rangel - January 10, 2012

Tonight the Lady Pirates play the Fort Davis Indians, in Fort Davis The Jr. High boys play at 5:00 and Lady Pirates follow. The Fort Davis Indians are 1-1 in district, they are very good team and can shoot the ball very well. Coach Porras said " I hope we play as a team tonight, because we have played Fort Davis in the Marfa tournament and we did not play them like the way we are playing now, and we need to score more.”

The Lady Pirates are 0-1 in district, Kimberly Morton sits as the high scorer of 18 points in our last game against the Lady Cougars. She says, "I hope I can score more in our game tonight and keep building on my free throw shooting.” We have all seen the improvement in the Lady Pirates Free throws shooting after the holidays. The Pirate news team would like to wish the Pirates good luck tonight!

by Adriana Rangel - January 9, 2012

The Lady Pirates fell to the Dell City Cougars on Friday night with a score of 39-32. The Lady Pirates stayed with the Cougars throughout the game by making all their free throws. This was a problem for the Lady Pirates before the holidays, thank goodness it wasn't a problem during this game against the Lady Cougars.

Kimberly was the highest scorer of the game with 18 points, Cayenne with 8 points, Adriana with 5 points, and Nicole and Amelia each had 2 points. The Lady Cougars had the lead the whole game making it an an uphill battle throughout the game. The Lady Pirates are 0-1 in district play. The girls will be looking for a win against the Fort Davis Indians in Fort Davis, Tuesday, January 10, 2012, starting at 6:30.

by Adriana Rangel - January 4, 2012

Basketball is back!! The lady Pirates will be playing their first District game Friday, January 6, 2012 in Valentine. The Lady Pirates, who didn't get a game in before the holidays, had a very rough game against Buena Vista December 9, 2011 in the Fort Davis Tournament. Nicole Campbell with a sprained ankle, hasn't played since.

She says " Yes, I'm more than ready, its hard to sit on the bench and see the rest of my teammates playing.” Cayenne Webb added, "I believe we can take on the Lady Cougars Friday, if we all play as a team and play hard.” Coach Porras has a very good feeling that the Lady Pirates will have a victory on Friday night against the Lady Cougars, saying "we just need to play good defense.”

Well hopefully both girls and boys teams will have a win on Friday against the Dell City Cougars. Girls start at 6:30, hope to see all our community up in the stands supporting are Pirates! Good luck Pirates! Pictured above are Nicole and Cayenne and Coach Porras to the right.

Left - Nicole, Adriana, Bob, and Cayenne. Everyone needs a special friend.
Right - Guess which one is the beast!

by Kimberly Morton - December 13, 2011

OH NO! Today the Lady Pirates and Pirates were supposed to play Big Bend at 4:00 pm (12/13) but due to injuries and a sickness, the Lady Pirates will not be playing tonight. The Lady Pirates really needed this practice but we'll use this time to work out in practice and get ready for district after the Christmas holidays! However the boys will continue to play but their game will probably start at 4 or 4:30 Come support our boys and have a tasty Travel Class hamburger!

by Kimberly Morton - December 12, 2011

This past week the Pirate basketball teams had their annual tournament in Ft. Davis and there we had FOUR injuries but SIX people ended up having to get bags of ice! Adriana and Nicole are seen nursing their injuries. Also shown are Kim's fingers and Aaron's ankle.

It was crazy, I've never seen so many Valentine people with bags of ice before! Amelia Santillan, Nicole Campbell and Aaron Morton went down with ankle injuries, Kim Morton jammed her finger pretty bad, Adriana Rangel might've hyper-extended her knee (not too sure what happened to her but it got pretty swollen) and Enrique Navarrete had hurt his wrist while falling off his horse but it irritated him during the games.

Due to the fact that there were three bad ankle injuries and the week before Kim had sprained hers, Mr. Cook decided to get us ALL ankle braces. Should be fun, should be exciting. We will be all ready to go after the Christmas break!!

by Daniel Garnsey - November 14, 2011

On Friday the Lady Pirates played the Lady Shorthorns for their first basketball game of the season. The girls came out and ready to play as the whistle was blown. "We were nervous,” said Kimberly Morton number thirty on the girls team. "We were really excited to play though.” The girls did an excellent job overall, even though they lost, they played a really good game. The score came out to be 18-19, with the Lady Shorthorns scoring a three in the last twenty seconds of the game.

The Lady Pirates led the way for the majority of the game, leading 12-0 by the end of the first half. Adriana Rangel busted a three to take the lead at the beginning of the game. "Yeah, it was a big shocker,” said the senior on her spectacular shot. Then, shortly after, senior Amelia Santillan made the next four points, taking the lead to 7-0. "The band music really pumped me up!” said Amelia. The last few shots in the half were taken by Junior Kimberly Morton.

A few things the girls said that might have helped them out was to make more shots and to pay more attention on defense. "We needed to play better defense.” said senior Nicole Campbell, "That would have really helped us out.”

The girls are now preparing for their next game against the Lady Mustangs from Marathon, TX. The game will be played in Marathon at 6:00 P.M. followed by the boys game. So come all you Pirate fans and support your Pirates and Lady Pirates at Marathon to take on the Mustangs. ARRRRR!