BY NATE KOTISSO | STAFF WRITER
MISSION — Mission Veterans junior Ronnie Cantu might not have the clearest memory of her infancy, but her father does.
Ronnie’s father, Rafael Cantu, Jr., has been the Patriots’ girls’ basketball coach since the school opened in 2002.
“When Ronnie was younger and I’d tell her that I’m going to the gym, she’d be in the car before I even finished my sentence,” Rafael Cantu said. “She wanted to be in the gym and shoot around. I still have a photo of her in diapers holding a basketball.”
“I’ve heard stories about me walking around the basketball court after his games when I was 2 years old,” Ronnie Cantu said. “I grew up wanting to play.”
When she turned 5, Ronnie was finally old enough to play on her first basketball team at the Boys & Girls Club in Mission. Her instructors: head coach Michelle Cantu, Ronnie’s mother, and Rafael Cantu, her husband and trusty assistant.
“I played at the Boys & Girls Club all the way into junior high,” Ronnie Cantu said. “I know they expected a lot of out of me being their daughter. I’d hear the coaching on the court, but I didn’t just hear it only on the court. I took it home with me since I was living with both of my coaches. It was basketball 24/7.”
The pressure to excel for the daughter of a coach is one thing, but Ronnie has had to deal with exterior pressure as well. Some have believed that Ronnie may not have had to work as hard because Rafael is the Patriots’ longtime coach.
“It’s something I expected to hear coming up from junior high into high school. ‘Oh, your dad’s the coach,’” Ronnie Cantu said. “People thought I was on the varsity team because of my dad, but I worked my way up here. I heard it a lot, but I had to turn it around and put that energy into my game. I know I belong here.”
Cantu, Mission Veterans’ point guard, is second on her team in scoring (10.9), second in steals (3.8) and tops in assists (3.7).
Back in Rafael’s day, he was a point guard himself for former boys basketball coach Roy Garcia at Mission High in the 1980s.
“Back then, (Mission Veterans football) coach (David) Gilpin was our center and he led the Valley in scoring,” Rafael Cantu said. “Every now and then, I like to remind him, ‘Who was the point guard on that team?’ The thing that makes a great point guard is confidence. You always believe you’re never out of a game. Your fire and determination rubs off on your teammates. A great point guard lifts other players’ games and makes them better players. Ronnie has that confidence.”
In her first two seasons, Ronnie hadn’t looked for her own shot much. She averaged 6.8 points per game in 2017-18. To date, Ronnie has scored 86 more points this season than she did all of last year.
“I really never thought much about going to the basket first,” she said. “I was fine passing to my teammates. I spent a lot of the offseason working on my offensive game.”
“When she’s looking to be aggressive offensively, that’s when things start to open up for everyone else,” Rafael Cantu said. “Now she’s a threat, so teams are drawing their defenses to her and she’s kicking the ball out to the open man or dishing it to the post. Right now, (forward) Jackie (Howell), (guard) Kaylee (Flores) and Ronnie are all averaging double figures and Selinda Cortez is close to six per game. That’s pretty good.”
Mission Veterans (21-10) and Sharyland Pioneer (20-13) appear to be on a collision course to decide the District 31-5A champion this season. The Patriots and Diamondbacks will meet in district play for the second time at 6 p.m. Friday on the Mission Veterans campus.
Sharyland Pioneer won the first meeting back in December. Both teams are tied atop 31-5A with identical 9-1 records.
“They’re our rivals in every sport, but I played basketball with a lot of those girls,” Ronnie Cantu said. “That game is going to be a mental game. The crowd is going to be roaring and both coaches are going to be screaming. At this point, it’s us two (Mission Veterans and Sharyland Pioneer) for the district championship. It’ll be a big game.”