Community Champion: Americas looks to bring home more hardware

The Americas boys basketball team has already won a district title and a bi-district championship, but they’re not done yet.

The Trail Blazers will look to bring home another trophy Friday in the area round of the 6A state playoffs when they meet Hurst Bell with a spot in the regional quarterfinals on the line.

“Man, you like to win gold balls. That’s kind of our goal every year is to see how many gold balls we can win,” said head coach Mike Brooks. “And you get a gold ball for every championship. So, district championship, you get a gold ball. Bi-district championship, you get a gold ball. Area playoff, gold ball.”

The Blazers ran through District 1-6A with a perfect 10-0 record and then defeated Wolfforth Frenship in the first round of the playoffs, 55-48, to book their trip to the area round.

“It’s not just a basketball team, it’s a family,” said senior guard Joseph de Anda. “We’ve bonded together, we’ve grown together, and that’s why we play so well together on the floor. It’s like we know what someone is going to do right before they do it. It’s just like the back of our hand.”

Americas has now won 17 consecutive games, according to MaxPreps, and an 18th win could be in the cards later this week, although nothing is certain in the postseason.

“Congrats to everyone that’s still playing. It’s a privilege,” said Brooks. “And I hope everyone represents El Paso. Get gold balls – that’s the goal.”

The Blazers know each game could be the last for the seniors, which gives them plenty of motivation on top of the desire to keep racking up hardware.

“But we’ve just got to do what we’ve got to do. And it’s pretty sad knowing that basketball is going to end soon,” said senior guard Eric Castaneda. “But when it gets closer to that, we’ve got to play hard.”