David Payne is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Barry Goldwater High School for AZPreps365.com

Barry Goldwater High School’s girls basketball game celebrated Senior Night at their last home game of the season on Friday with a win over Cactus,  45-31. The Bulldogs finished their 20-21 season with a 7-12 record, making it their best record since 2015. 

Confidence, culture and chemistry were three key points the Bulldogs focused on as a team this season. Goldwater coach Brett Bowles said it’s something he and his coaching staff have tried to instill into their players from the moment he became their coach in 2019.

“My main focus was changing the culture and focusing on fundamentals,” Bowles said. 

Those fundamentals were on display in each game regardless of the final score. The team stayed on the same page, consistently communicating and listening to one another, discussing their game plan or motivating each other. 

Bowles said that attitude and the idea of a change in culture trickled down from the coaches to the players and brought a stronger team bond. 

“It’s a confidence thing,” Bowles said. “Essentially I tell them, ‘I believe we’re a good team, you just have to believe it’ and I’m always telling them in practice they’re a better team than then give themselves credit for.”

For the players, senior guard Brianna Imperial said team success started and grew off the court. 

“We have a bond outside basketball and a lot of our past teams didn’t have that,” Imperial said. “When I see the freshman or sophomores on campus I’ll say ‘what’s up’ and that’s something that never happened before.” 

Riana Perez, another senior for the Bulldogs, said she noticed a change in the team’s chemistry after a three-hour bus ride home from their fifth game of the season against Lee Williams High School, where they lost 57-31. 

“We took a hard loss. We were in the back of the bus and the coaches were in the front and it was just us talking and bonding,” Perez said. “We got to know each other more on a deeper level.” 

Perez said the conversation on that trip was enough to bring the players together, which was something the Bulldogs hadn’t experienced much with previous teams. 

“For most of us, we’ve had seasons where we had zero chemistry and we lost almost every single game,” Perez said. “Now we know how to help each other and be positive through our losses and that’s helped us maintain a good chemistry and attitude throughout the season.”

A large contributor to Goldwater’s motivation came from the team’s motto this season; “Effort Over Excuses.” 

“It just means, no matter what, you put in the work 100 percent of the time,” said senior Yazmin Hernandez, wearing the phrase on the back of her shirt. “It’s all from coach. He points out every excuse in practice and always reminds us, ‘effort over excuses.’” 

“Yeah, coach doesn’t put up with drama,” Imperial added with a laugh. 

Bowles said that motto came together naturally after his first season coaching the Bulldogs. 

“There were so many excuses and at one practice I said I was tired of the excuses and I’d rather them give effort and from there it grew,” Bowles said. “They’ve definitely risen up to that and given more effort than they have excuses all year. I’m proud of them for that.” 

Goldwater will lose Imperial, Perez and Hernandez to graduation this season and Bowles said their leadership and talent will be missed. He also said he looks forward to continue working with his players and helping them grow.