Basketball season has begun and Palomar women’s basketball team is working hard with the help of head coach, Leigh Marshall.

Marshall was hired at the start of the 2010-2011 season and has managed to successfully coach the wom­en’s basketball team and has helped by guiding the team on the road to suc­cess. Additionally, Marshall made the decision on becoming a coach since she had a big passion for basketball and it was the best way for her to hold on to something she loved and enjoyed.

Marshall expressed what it has meant for her to be head coach of the women’s basketball team.

“I feel blessed to be in this situa­tion that I am in, to be able to mentor young women or build relationships with them and try to help them move on to the next level. To be the best that they can be here, it means a lot… it’s a huge part of my life,” Marshall said

From previous games, Marshall plans to work on getting better defen­sively since they are known for their great defense.

“This is not one of our better defen­sive groups even though it should be because we have six returners from our last season that got a lot of min­utes. We just have to be a lot tougher, we have to be a lot mentally tougher, physically tougher as well,” Marshall said.

Marshall shared her most important accomplishments as being a coach at Palomar.

“Over the wins and losses, I think one of our biggest accomplishments is building a culture that we’ve built here, if you ask the kids kinda what it means to be a Comet and what our culture is about, all of them would tell you hard work being discipline and being tough. I think above the wins and losses it’s great to win games, but I think the culture that weve built has been very important.”

20 year-old Comet guard/forward, Quinesha Vanhook, started play­ing basketball to “keep herself busy” in middle school, but shortly after, it turned into one of her passions.

Vanhook plans on tramferring to a four-year university to continue her basketball career after Palomar. Addi­tionally, Vanhook has big goals set for her future and plans on playing profes­sionally or overseas. In the late future she would like to follow in Marshall’s footsteps and come back to Palomar and coach basketball.

Vanhook shares her admiration toward coach Marshall by stating, “She’s very caring about each one of us on and off the court, she pushes us to become better players every day.”

Marshall has a point system which means that for every mistake a player makes, they have to run that amount at the end of that week. This method is used to encourage players to try their absolute best and show determination on the court.

“That motivates us to keep our point system down by not turning the ball over so much,” Vanhook said.

19-year-old Comet guard, Roshell Lamung, has become a key player for her team. Lamung plans to transfer to a four-year university, major in Biolo­gy engineering and work in the medi­cal field. Additionally, Lamung plans on continuing her career in basketball once she transfers to a four-year uni­versity by playing on the team.

Lamung expresses what she likes most about coach Marshall, “Everyday she brings us in with care, she expect’s highly of us and pushes and motivates us on and off the court, during prac­tice she demands the best out of us, our highest effort.”

The women’s basketball team is off to a good start this season with contri­butions of both the coaching staff and team players.