Morrow pleased with Lady Warrior hoopsters despite early record

Fallbrook High School girls basketball coach Tony Morrow isn't attributing the Warriors' early-season record to his players or to his own lack of previous experience as the head coach.

Morrow believes that a relatively young team which has played a tough pre-league schedule has performed to his expectations despite taking a 3-8 record into calendar year 2017.

"The girls are doing very, very well, so I'm pleased at this point," said Morrow. "We've been tied or in the lead of about every game we've played."

The Warriors opened their 2016-17 season with a Dec. 6 home win against Linfield Christian and concluded December with the Murrieta Valley Nighthawk Classic tournament in which the Warriors had a 1-3 record against four CIF Southern Section teams. Fallbrook posted a 1-5 record against CIF San Diego Section teams during the first month of the season.

"Every team we've played this far has been San Diego Division I or higher," Morrow said. "We scheduled extremely tough this year on purpose."

Fallbrook is in Division II for CIF playoff purposes. A tough pre-league schedule prepares a team for league and CIF playoff competition. The Warriors commence Valley League play Jan. 17 with a home game against Escondido.

"Our goal is to try to win a league championship," said Morrow. "We're just trying to compete against the best competition we can. We've been up and down. We're very young and we're playing a very competitive schedule."

Fallbrook's 14-girl roster is comprised of three seniors, three juniors, four sophomores, and four freshmen. Only three of the players – junior Sara Ahmadpour and sophomores Janay Segura and Cali Southwell – were starters on the 2015-16 squad. Ahmadpour, who was on the Valley League second team for 2015-16, is Fallbrook's only returning all-league player.

"We're finding ways to overcome our youth," said Morrow.

Morrow was Dan Bachman's co-coach in 2012-13, 2013-14, and 2014-15. Morrow did not coach during the 2015-16 season so that he could begin his Ph.D. program. This year Bachman, whose son is in elementary school, has focused on coaching at the youth level. Morrow has two assistant coaches this year: Nicole Benitez and Jessica Ramirez.