Mavs D-team completes season undefeated

MOSES LAKE — The Moses Lake Mavericks boys basketball’s D-team made a statement this season by finishing undefeated with a final record of 15-0. The young team of freshmen and sophomores battled hard and, with the leadership of first-year Head Coach Eric Salgado, found success on the court. 

“I was very direct with these kids, I ran things very sharp, and it was a really exciting season. We’re all really happy with it,” said Salgado.  

Coming into this season, the coach said he had prior experience coaching for seven years in AAU basketball before he was invited to become a coach at MLHS. Under the supervision of Varsity Head Coach Craig Groth, Salgado was given the tools he needed to transition into a high school-level coach.

Salgado said there were two sides to the D-team; the side that participated to stay athletic between fall and spring sports and those who had played last year and wanted to prove themselves on the court after only winning around four games the season prior. 

“We had a really large turnout of kids and this is why they brought me on,” Salgado said. “Craig Groth has been leading an exciting program and there’s been a lot of turnout, so they wanted to bring my expertise in this and my coaching philosophy, which was, I think, a big reason why we were able to accomplish this perfect season.”  

The first step at the start of this season was putting together a system for the team and the second step was to get the team motivated to work hard, said Salgado. 

“Really being able to inspire the boys who didn’t have such a good season last year to help them find a good reason for them to work hard in these practices,” he said. “These boys were really great at taking my direction and just feeding off that.” 

The Mavs season started off on the road as they travelled to face the Ephrata Tigers. The boys earned a strong victory with a final score of 87-24.  

This dominance persisted throughout the season as they faced fellow D-teams and even C-teams from Wenatchee, AC Davis and Sunnyside, winning by about 30-point margins.  

One of the closest games of the season came Feb. 6 at home against Eastmont’s C-team. The Mavs pushed forward to earn a 69-50 victory, their only matchup where the score was within 20 points. 

With this momentum the Mavs entered their final game of the season Feb. 13 against Sunnyside’s C-Team. Moses Lake rallied for an 81-25 victory to cap off an undefeated season.  

To commemorate the success from this season, Salgado created custom T-shirts for the team with the team logo and the words “15-0 UNDEFEATED” at the top. Salgado said it meant a lot to the team to represent the Mavs proudly. 

Salgado said he enjoyed the community turnout filling up the stands at each of their games. Using social media to help build up a following for the team, he felt, really contributed to the game attendance.  

With this season coming to a successful close, the coach said he is excited to see how the Mavs D-team develops in the years to come. 

“As far as next year goes, I feel like I gained a reputation of building the Mavs system under Craig Groth and really building a name for us that whoever decides to participate in our program, they’re going to be successful,” said Salgado. “Not just winning, but also to the development because I know that I’m going to develop these boys to the next level.” 

Team Roster 

Name, Jersey 

Malaki Castillo, 1 

Brandon Duvall, 13 

Cass Stewart, 15 

Grayson Russell-Yates, 22 

Braron Petersen, 23 

Baylor Rogers, 24 

Alejandro Lopez, 30 

Jayven Greeno, 31 

Xander Redford, 40 

Eduard Doroshenko, 44 

Jordan Burruss, 50 

Emilio Sarraraz, 55 

    Moses Lake celebrates its seventh straight win earlier this season as the Mavericks made their way toward an undefeated season. Head Coach Eric Salgado said the main goal at the start of the season was to get the team motivated to work hard.