Pima College women’s basketball head coach Todd Holthaus is cautiously optimistic about his team’s chances.
“We are going to be pretty good, I think,” said Holthaus, whose 18th-ranked Aztecs opens their season Saturday night against SAGU American Indian College in the West Campus Gym. “I say it like that because we have a lot of returners, which is always good, and we’re not fully healthy yet but we’re trending that way. So we’re getting kids that are going to become healthy as opposed to the opposite, losing kids.”
Last season the Aztecs went 20-11, reaching the Region I Division II final, where they lost to Mesa. PCC and MCC have played 12 times in 14 years in the region finals.
The Aztecs have won at least 20 games in six of the last seven seasons, the outlier being the COVID-shortened 2020-21 year.
Sophomore guard Angel Addleman said the loss to the Thunderbirds provided extra push during the long offseason.
“It’s always sad to fall out early, to lose early, but that’s just better motivation to keep going and keep boosting each other up,” said Addleman, who went to Palo Verde High School.
Addleman missed the final four games of last season with an injury. Holthaus said her absence was tough to overcome.
Guard Angel Addleman drives into the defense during Wednesday’s practice. The Palo Verde High School graduate is expected to run the Aztecs’ offense again this year after missing the final four games of the 2021-22 season due to injury.
“We were trying to figure out things on the run without a point guard, so losing Angel was kind of a big piece,” Holthaus said. “But the group of them rallied together and then for us to even make it to the region championship game was kind of a testament to that group. Because even though we didn’t have our point guard, we still found a way to scratch and claw, and it wasn’t pretty, but we still got back to the championship game. We still had a chance to win.”
Addleman was named second-team All-ACCAC last season and guard Luisayde Chavez and forward Nikya Orange made the third team. Orange took a scholarship to Northwestern Oklahoma, while Chavez returns. She’ll be joined by sophomore guard Aiona Jackson, who impressed Holthaus with her summer work.
Holthaus said sophomore guard Aiona Johnson, who didn’t play much last year, has impressed with her improvements over the summer.
Sophomore guard Priscila Varela said this year’s eight-person freshman class, which includes Amphitheater High School graduates Knowledge Smith and Mat’tanaya Vital and Tucson High’s Calista McLean, is an impressive one.
“I think them being here for the whole summer practically and how early they bought into the team has helped out,” Varela said. “They work just as hard as everyone else, they’re not cutting reps or anything like that, so they just really bought into the idea that Pima has.”
Arizona Western is ranked No. 17 in Division I and Mesa eighth in Division II. The ACCAC is up to 12 teams as Yavapai, which dropped basketball in 2011, has returned.
Holthaus said “it’ll be a fight every night.”
“The league is going to be good,” Holthaus said. “Mesa’s gonna be good, Scottsdale’s gonna be good, Chandler-Gilbert’s gonna be good, the D-Is are always going to be good and then Yavapai is back after being gone for a number of years.”
Rim shots
Saturday’s season opener will also be Pima’s second “In Honor of Indigenous Peoples Game.” The Aztecs will wear special turquoise uniforms.
“In my 15 years here, I’ve always admired about our Native American kids is they always want to go to college because they want to go back to their people and help their people. I really appreciate that,” Holthaus said. “I felt like with November being Indigenous Peoples Month, this was a great opportunity to celebrate that.”
