Napa Valley College women’s basketball preview: Storm looking to take program to new heights with deep roster

By Kyle Foster

kfost91197@gmail.com

Twitter/X: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews

When you begin the season with goals and ambitions, there is certainly some juice to the season. This is even more true when you have goals to do things that haven’t been done before. 

This is what the Napa Valley College women’s basketball team is eying this winter, after multiple years of the program continuing its upward trajectory. 

Last year, the Storm went 17-12 overall and finished in second-place in the Bay Valley Conference with a 13-3 mark. This earned them the No. 21 seed in the CCCAA Northern California playoffs, where they lost 76-66 to Chabot. 

But as the new season gets ready to tip off, NVC has its sights set on a few achievements that would take the program to the next level. One of those is to be the first team to ever win 20 games in program history, while also winning the BVC. 

“The expectation is to get a banner,” Napa Valley College guard Arianna Aguilar said. “That’s it.  There’s not really like anything more obvious. When people think of Napa Valley, they don’t think of it as a good team. But we’re a good team, and we haven’t gotten a banner in over 10,15 years, so it’s due, and I think we’re the team to get it, and even if we don’t get it, we’re still going to go far in playoffs, and that’s the expectation.” 

While the conference will be tougher at the top, it will take unseeding Laney-Oakland, who has won the BVC for the last five seasons. 

This leads to the final goal, which is to host a playoff game. In the long history of the team playing, they have never hosted a playoff game. This is something they would like to do this season. 

“Napa has still never had a home playoff game,” Napa Valley College head coach Paul DeBolt said. “Napa has never won 20 games in a season. So those are two goals right away. We finished second in the conference the last two years. We’d like to compete for the conference championship. That hasn’t happened since 1988, so there’s always things that we can do that haven’t been done yet. Our goal is to get to the postseason and win in the postseason.” 

One of the main reasons why they feel they can do this is the fact that they have a very solid group. They have more depth this year, with 13 players on the roster. Five of them are returners from last season. This depth gives the Storm the ability to mix and match while not having to worry about foul trouble. They can also manage minutes a bit better with more players, which means everyone should be fresher. 

“So that’s a big thing,” NVC sophomore guard Ashley Torres said of having a bigger roster. “Coach Paul has really emphasized how appreciative we are of that this year. Last year was really hard, having such little players. We all work as hard as we can, and then by the second half, we’re really trying to push through as much as we can. So having as many players this year really means we’re able to keep our team fresh. Get the first five out play as hard as you can. Get another fresh five coming out.  They work as hard as they can, be able to better rotate our players, and all of us bring something to the court. So it’s really nice to have that.” 

Of the five returners, the Storm features three starters who are back. Those key starters are Aguilar, Fontilla, and Pollard. Aguilar and Fontilla will be expected to carry a lot of the load on offense.

The other returners from last season are Helena White and Torres, who played key roles off the bench last season. With the young group, the returners have been key in getting the freshmen up to speed. 

Napa Valley has a whopping 9 freshmen on their roster. The main thing is that they can all play, which provides plenty of length and options when it comes to situations that can come up in a game. 

The Storm will begin the season on November 1st at Pasadena City College for the PCC Sisterhood of Champions Crossover. In the opener, they’ll face San Bernardino Valley and then Taft on Sunday in the final game of the two-day event. They’ll also host the 5th annual NVC Storm Surge tournament December 11th-13th. 

They’ll play the majority of their conference schedule after the New Year. The only exception comes when they visit Marin on December 18th. Other highlights of the BVC season include Friday night games against Los Medanos and Laney. They play a Thursday game against Mendocino on January 8th before hosting Solano in a rare Saturday matinee game with a 1 pm tip. The rest of the schedule can be found here. 

Three new coaches add energy while bringing plenty of experience

Also new this season, the Storm has added three new coaches to its staff. Along with DeBolt, who is in his 6th year leading the program, is Zack Cook. Then, you get to the three new coaches. 

Helping out this season is Keith Allison. He assisted DeBolt at Contra Costa during his run there. Their relationship goes a long way when it comes to being in moments and knowing what is needed. 

“I’ve coached with Keith Allison for more than 15 years,” DeBolt said. “So, Keith and I are very close. So just having him here is really good. I mean, he’s a very good basketball person, very good assistant coach. He knows technique. He’s a great shot teacher, shooting teacher. Can develop talent. He sees the game as anybody with 50 years of playing and coaching would see it. So he’s a very big asset.” 

Meanwhile, Will Bullard is also helping them out with the strength and conditioning program while also juggling duties as the head girls’ coach at St. Vincent de Paul in Petaluma. He also played for the Harlem Globetrotters.  

“Will Bullard, he played for the Harlem Globetrotters for 12,13 years,” DeBolt pointed out. “I mean, he’s from Texas. They have a different mindset in Texas (when) playing basketball. He’s a true baller, professional. Been to 70 countries. He’s still the girls’ coach at St Vincent de Paul High School, but he’s been in the gym two or three days a week. He’s been running our strength and conditioning, and just really has a good basketball mind, gets the game like Keith. He can communicate with players.”  

The Storm has also brought on Anika Carey, who is in the role of student volunteer. But with her being closer in age to the players, it helps her relate to the players. They also just brought her onto the staff in September after she had been recommended. She also just got done playing at Cal Maritime. 

“Anika is our kind of our student volunteer assistant this year,” DeBolt said. “She came on in September. She played last year at Cal Maritime. She was recommended by her coach. Wanted a female coach. I was looking for a younger female coach. She’s 21. She’s very mature. She is a firefighter and a full-time firefighter in Contra Costa County. She’s amazing. She just immediately got the players’ attention.”