By: Kevin Arias-Romero, Editor-in-Chief, WSL Athletics 

From time to time, I’ve gone astray from my duties of covering The West Sierra League to bring to the forefront stories of teams in the surrounding communities that have had interesting seasons and stories to tell. This is one of those stories. 

This is the story of Caruthers High School and their Girl’s basketball team located less than an hour from my hometown of Mendota and a mere 20 minutes away from Fresno with a population of 1,813 and their season which including highs and lows including a tragic loss of a longtime assistant coach and community member. They started their season very strong gong (9-3) to round out 2024 and continued their dominant performance into 2025 only losing 3 times but the 3^rd loss was the one loss that would stay with this team for the rest of the season. Fast forward to February 18^th 2025, Caruthers who were the 7^th seed in the CIF Central Section Division 1 playoffs traveled to Clovis High School who were the 2^nd seed and the winner of the game would punch their ticket to the divisional final four. It was a close competitive game throughout and both teams traded blow after blow but in the end Clovis would come out on top winning 68-64. Now most of the time teams that only make it this far would think their season would be over and not usually be considered for a state playoff bid which I’ll bring up later. But after the game the unimaginable happens when Assistant Coach Larry Trigueiro unexpectedly passed away not long after the game which on top of the blow of losing in the playoffs was an even bigger blow to the team, the community of Caruthers and his family. 

When the CIF State Headquarters released their State Basketballplayoff brackets. It must have been the work of the basketball gods and Coach Larry as his beloved Lady Blue Raiders made the tournament earning the #1 seed in the Division 2 Northern Regionals in which they would eventually move on to the State Championship game at Golden1 Center, Sacramento with wins over Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep-San Francisco, California High School-San Ramona, and Salesian College Prep-Richmond. They would matchup against the Cinderella of the Southern Regionals which were the #7 seeded Rancho Bernardo Lady Broncos out of San Diego and in the end with continued guidance from above by Coach Larry, The Caruthers Lady Blue Raiders would win back-to-back State Titles with a 56-37 victory. 

Here is an interview I conducted with Caruthers Girl’s Basketball Coach Anna Almeida after their State playoff overtime victory versus Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep-SF. 

KR: How have the last few weeks have been for you, your staff, your players, and the community as a whole?

AA: we’ve all kind of rallied together to support each other and support the family as you mentioned that Larry Trigueiro was very important to us and the community in general and the very next day after the tragic passing of him we went to support Morgan and Anissa who were playing at COS (College of the Sequoias) at Porterville then afterwards we got back on the road to mending our hearts we’ve had up and down practices and having the funeral on Monday and like you said the basketball gods and LT was up there working his magic to give us a bye on Tuesday which helped and we didn’t think we would be getting the #1 seed but we felt he helped us with that also which gave us extra practice time and just to recuperate and we knew this game was going to be rough cause we hadn’t played in two weeks we literally practiced for two weeks. So we’re glad to pull it out and worked on this last minute situation over and over and over and over again for every practice and obviously it paid off. 

KR: What was the halftime talk with the team with the small lead and the type of play that had happened during the 1^st half? 

AA: Well first of all we didn’t realize they were going to shoot so well as they did because they hadn’t in previous games so we had to adjust our defense to that and pull off the full-court press that was with a trap to ensure we had the wing shooters covered and so that really helped and our biggest thing is that we were kind of out of continuity and they switched their defense constantly going from Man to Zone with a 1-3-1 and a 1-2-2 and so realizing what that was we’ve been working on it but our point guards struggled getting it to the right spots and the right times. 

KR: What went on in the huddle to enter the 4^th period?

AA: Well we work on this like I said every day, four quarters in which we won 2 quarters and lost the 3^rd quarter and so we talked to them letting them knew there was plenty of time and that this was the forth quarter then once we got to 0-0 with four minutes left and I told them “we do this every day you guys have done this you know what it is”, we didn’t execute some of the things we asked them to do during the timeouts and we know what we need to work on from here on out as they have to get on the floor and execute. I was proud of our #4 Juliana Lemus     as I first yelled at her for screwing it up but then she redeemed her self by knocking down free throws, getting the ball in the hole, and getting rebounds and all in all you have to take what you can get. 

KR: What are your thoughts about the team that knocked you out in the 2^nd round of the CS playoffs Clovis High who earlier in  the evening ended up losing to Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa 62-61 in overtime? 

AA: I’m going to text Coop (Cooper Steele, Clovis HS GBB HC) as soon as I get out of here and tell him that I’m sorry, we were rooting for them and so it’s heartbreaking and I was constantly asking my assistants what the Clovis High update was throughout our game even though I was coaching. I’m heartbroken for them and I feel bad and I know he’s going to feel it as they beat Cardinal Newman earlier in the year and so I know Cardinal Newman wanted this one bad. 

KR: What will need to be done in the one day that you’ll have to get ready for the state semifinals on Saturday? 

AA: Shot selection and recognizing who the shooters are on the opposing team. Our shot selection wasn’t really great and our post presence wasn’t releasing when she was supposed to on passes and moving to the opposite side but the biggest thing would be our defense and how we approach getting in front of their shooters 

Once again on behalf of myself and WSL Athletics, I would like to extend my condolences to The Trigueiro Family, Caruthers High School and Their Girl’s Basketball Team, and The City of Caruthers for the loss of an outstanding individual who will always live in the hearts and minds of those who knew him and loved him. Matthew 25:23 says “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful in few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of the lord”. Larry Trigueiro was more than a servant he was definitely a pillar to those who worked with him and knew him and always gave back to his community and the youth of Caruthers. 

Kevin Arias-Romero, Editor-in-Chief, WSL Athletics & WSL Contributor, The Pagmeter