Submitted photo – The Del Norte freshmen boys.

By Ray Hamill — The race for this year’s freshmen Big 5 boys basketball championship went down to the wire, with the young Del Norte Warriors securing the title on the final day of the regular season.

And they achieved that while continuing on a strong Del Norte tradition, something the coaches instilled in the young players all season long.

“We had a little bit of everything. We could score and we played good defense,” said head coach Gabe Lopez, who added with a chuckle, “to play at Del Norte, you have to play defense.”

That was something the coaches impressed on the players as far back as last summer, when many of them played travel ball with Lopez in preparation for their debut high school campaigns.

It was also a lesson the young Warriors took to heart and something that paid dividends this winter.

This year’s Big 5 was competitive and balanced and the race for the league championship went down to the final night of the season.

In their season finale, the Warriors edged the McKinleyville Panthers 47-45 to secure the title in what was a true championship showdown.

And Lopez believes the Big 5 will benefit from all of that competition in the coming years.

“That freshmen division, it was good throughout the whole league,” the coach said. “The games were close. Everybody beat everybody.

“I think the Big 5 is going to have some really good basketball for people to come out and watch for the next three or four years.”

Several players stepped up for the Warriors over the course of the season, including Rek-woi Alamdea, who helped set the tone on the defensive side of the ball.

Submitted photo

The young Alamdea was given the task of guarding the opposing team’s point guard every game and he did not disappoint.

“He did a good job at that. He got after it defensively,” Lopez said. “And he made it hard for the other team to get into their offense.”

The versatile Marcus Parras also enjoyed an outstanding season for the young Warriors and was one of the team’s most productive players.

“He played everywhere,” the coach said. “He could play point for me, he could play wing, and he was our No. 1 scorer. If I needed a bucket, I went to him.”

Landan Willams and Rumaldo Salcedo Jr. both also had a big impact at both ends of the court, particularly defensively.

Williams was named to the all-tournament team at the Eureka tournament because of his outstanding defense.

Submitted photo

“They played really good defense all year for me,” Lopez said of the talented duo. “They were consistent.”

Most important, the players seemed to enjoy their time together and that showed in the way they played and practiced.

“They were really fun to be around,” Lopez said. “They had a really good attitude.”

The team also included Evan Restad, Sebastian Alcala, Max Borges, Trent Conk, Ethan Vue, Ian Stanley and Allen Stanshaw Jr., all of whom contributed to the team’s success, as did assistant coach Chris Davidson, who previously played basketball for the Warriors.