KEVIN NARRO | Valley Morning Star
Santa Rosa senior hoopster AB Lozoya laced up the basketball shoes one last time in his high school career as he represented the Valley at the annual Texas Association of Basketball Coaches All-Star game this past Saturday at Trinity University in San Antonio.
He was joined in the Alamo City by Warriors head coach Johnny Cipriano, who was tabbed the head coach for the all-star team Lozoya was on.
Lozoya’s squad picked up a 97-95 win in overtime as he scored two points in the win.
The Valley Morning Star had a chance to catch up with Lozoya after the contest to talk about his experience.
—
Q: How did you get selected to play in this all-star game and what was your reaction when you got the news?
AB: I honestly have no idea how I was selected. I was just surprised when Coach told me. I didn’t know there was another all-star game and knowing that it was all-state was just crazy.
Q: You and Coach Cipriano were the lone representatives from the RGV. What does that mean to you?
AB: It was nice knowing that we were representing the Valley because we are from a small school and a lot of people like to believe that the small schools can’t really play ball or other sports as well as the bigger schools. This just proves that it doesn’t matter where you’re from and that anything is possible with God, and doing this alongside my coach was extra special.
Q: How important are these all-star games as far as helping to get looked at by colleges?
AB: These all-star games help with getting looked at by coaches because you’re playing against the best of the best and if you’re shining during these games they’ll look at you for sure. This is where coaches get to see how you perform against so much talent, so that’s why I believe these games are important to players.
Q: What was it like playing with different players from across the state?
AB: Practice was actually really fun even though Coach tried killing us by running so much. But meeting the players from my team was great. They were really cool people who were nice and funny. You also get to see how good players from across the state are and how tall they are as well.
Q: What where some things you may have learned from this experience?
AB: I learned how different a lot of us are, but how great they are, too. It also felt like we were actually playing college ball and how fun it probably is to do it.
Q: What is your best memory from playing in an all-star game like this?
AB: The best memory would be getting to play for my coaches one last time. Getting to spend extra time with them was awesome because they are awesome coaches who seem to care a lot about me. They’ve always believed in me, and I was just glad that I was able to play one last time for them and spend time with them before I was officially done with sports.