BY NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
EDINBURG — Junior guard Jenessah Santa Maria is the product of a basketball-driven environment. Her dad, Jay, played at PSJA North, and Jenessah shares the court with her sisters and Bobcats teammates Jayla and Julissah.
“My dad introduced the game to me when I was 4 years old,” Jenessah Santa Maria said. “He’s taught us all the fundamentals: make all layups and free throws. He’s pushed us to be our very best.”
Jayla, a senior, is Jenessah’s older sister. The elder Santa Maria has put together a portfolio as one of the Valley’s top standouts while Julissah, a freshman, is wrapping up her first varsity season with the Bobcats.
The Santa Marias’ talents have made for some epic driveway showdowns.
“When I go up against Julissah, I’m going against a real lockdown defender,” Jenessah said. “It’s hard to get past her, so I try to blow by her, but she’s pretty fast, too. Jayla’s tall (5-foot-8) and I’m short (5-foot-3), so when I go up against her, I have to use my body a lot more.”
“There’s a lot of, ‘I’m gonna get you the next play,’” Jayla Santa Maria said. “We’d even double-team one another, whether it be me and Julissah against Jenessah, or Juli and Jenessah against me. We didn’t care about who could do what in those matchups. We just competed.”
Jenessah entered EHS with plenty of previous playing experience with other teammates, too.
“We played for a team called the Drivers with Mercedes Hernandez, and my dad was the coach,” Jenessah said. “We all played together since we were 6 years old, so, of course, we click on the court really well. We know where each other is on the court, and we trust each other.”
Jenessah’s scoring numbers are slightly down from last season. She averaged 11.8 points per game as a sophomore and is posting 10.9 points per game as a junior.
“The reason for her scoring numbers going down is because we’ve gotten a lot better as an offensive unit,” Edinburg High coach J.D. Salinas said. “Jayla’s averaging around the same amount as last year, Mercedes is putting up points, Brianna (Sanchez) is putting up points, and so is Jenessah and our two freshmen A’nnika (Saenz) and Daysha (Tijerina). The ball is being shared more than in previous years, because we’ve got more options.”
Jenessah is making an impact in other parts of her game. She is averaging career highs in assists (2.9), rebounds (4.2) and steals (3.3).
“Jenessah’s growing up as a player and a person,” Salinas said. “She has a better understanding of what her role is on the team and how she can contribute to the game besides scoring the basketball. She’s a true two-guard. Mercedes (3.5 assists per game) starts our offense, but Jenessah can handle the ball, also. She can go one-on-one and attack the basket. She’s found other areas that make our team better.”
The Bobcats (31-8) removed a major monkey from their backs on Monday by defeating Los Fresnos by 15 points in their bi-district game. The victory was Edinburg’s first bi-district triumph for the current senior class after the Bobcats had dropped the last three such games in a row.
EHS last won in the first round during the 2012-13 season — Salinas’ first as Bobcats head coach after taking over for Rachel Carmona. Carmona now coaches at Laredo United (31-5), which happens to be Edinburg High’s area-round opponent. The two will meet at 7:30 tonight at Corpus Christi Ray.
“We have to be smart on defense,” Jenessah said. “It’s going to be intense, because the old Edinburg coach Carmona and our coach are going head-to-head. We have to be ready for whatever comes.”
“She’s (Carmona) a legend down here in the Valley,” Salinas said. “We were really successful here at Edinburg, and now she’s really successful at Laredo United. When you have assistant coaches who become head coaches, eventually you might cross paths with the coach you used to work for. But we still have to go out there and play basketball.”