The Amherst Bulldogs’ varsity basketball team is looking to make a return trip to the post-season under Head Coach Daniel Hinojosa.
Prior to being at Amherst, Coach Hinojosa has coached at Bowie Middle School in Amarillo, Olton High School, Knox City High School, Brownfield High School, and Tulia High School.
The Bulldogs are 1-2 to start district play this year and coming off of a 2020-21 campaign where they lost to the eventual State Champion Texline in the Bi-district round of the play-offs.
The Coach talked about the roster, starting with his starters.
“Jaime Garcia was hurt most of year, but is finally healthy. He has been an All-District player for us since his freshman year and is one of our captains,” He said. “Junior, Gabriel Garcia, is a shooter and will play hard and is very competitive. He is Also a Captain. Junior, Isaac Herrera, has also been hurt for most of the year. He is Poised, runs the show and is our third Captain.” He added, “Senior, Chris Gonzales, didn’t play much last year due to injury. But, He is doing well and has improved as the year goes on. Sophomore, Oscar Medrano, “Didn’t play last year, but is a good defender and a tough rebounder. Junior, Brayan Torres, has started most of the year. He plays multiple positions and plays hard.”
Coach Hinojosa stated, “We have only had three games with everyone back, so it’s hard to gauge, how we’ve improved from last year to this year.”
The coach talked about who his leaders are, saying, “Jaime and Gabriel are the vocal leaders, and Isaac is the leader by example.”
He added, “Offensively, Jaime is a scorer and plays hard and Gabriel is as good as a shooter as I’ve ever had. Isaac provides leadership, calms the other boys down and can dictate the game without scoring. Chris seems to get sneaky buckets and loose balls and Oscar just provides solid defense and rebounding. Brayan is fit an any guard position and will play his role accordingly.”
Coach Hinojosa talked about their strengths and what they need to work on moving forward, saying, “We play hard, and can shoot the ball, but we need to improve on rebounding and defense.”
He talked about the season to this point, saying, “It’s hard to tell what type of team we are. We need minutes with starters and top eight or nine guys on the court to develop chemistry. We haven’t been able to do that with all the injuries.”
He added, “During district we will need to play hard and get better on defense if we want to make the play-offs. The district is good and very competitive. We have seven teams and six are legitimate play-off teams. So, it should be interesting.
The Bulldogs remaining schedule is as follows:
Tuesday, Jan. 18 th at Cotton Center; Friday, Jan. 21 st at Lazbuddie; Tuesday, Jan. 25 th home against Hart; Friday, Jan. 28 th home against Anton; Tuesday, Feb. 1 st Home against Kress; Tuesday, Feb. 8 th at Springlake-Earth; Friday, Feb. 11 th home against Cotton Center and Tuesday, Feb. 15 th home against Lazbuddie.