Victory Christian Academy, located within Chula Vista’s Rancho del Rey community, captured two San Diego Section boys basketball championships as Lutheran High School, winning the Class IA division in 1985 and the Division V title in 2015. The latter banner came after the school had physically relocated its campus to Chula Vista in 2009.
The school’s girls basketball team can now hang a banner in its new gymnasium on its new campus after the top-seeded Lady Knights defeated second-seeded High Tech High San Diego, 57-33, Thursday at Serra High School, which is undergoing its own name change to Canyon Hills High School.
Victory Christian Academy, which changed its name from Lutheran High School in 2015, advances to Tuesday’s Southern California regional playoffs as the automatic section qualifier. Seeding brackets will be posted Sunday.
The Lady Knights will take a 13-6 record into next week’s regional competition after sweeping their three playoff games.
It appears the small private Chula Vista school will continue to blaze new territory on the playing court.
“It was very nerve-racking, but I like challenges, the fast pace of the game,” sophomore guard Jayln Johnson said.
“The beginning of the third quarter, we were coming together as a team, making steals, rebounds and shots. We wanted it.”
Victory Christian head coach Sa’de Wiley-Gatewood, who joined the school’s coaching staff after winning last year’s Division I championship at Serra High School, admitted her team tipped off the championship game encounter against the Lady Storm a bit tentative.
“In the beginning I think all the girls were a bit nervous because most of them had never been here before, it was a new experience for them,” Wiley-Gatewood explained. “But I had two players who had played at Serra last year and were veterans. They provided the leadership and the rest of the girls followed.”
Junior Salma Youngblood and sophomore Jada Adams were the two veterans who helped guide the team to its history-making first CIF title and their second division championships in as many seasons personally.
“It means everything,” said Youngblood, the team’s scoring leader, who entered Thursday’s final with a 20.6 points-per-game average and topped that with 30 points in the division final. “I did it last year. This is a blessing.
“We worked hard, played hard, played defense. Defense wins championships. That’s how we always play.”
The Lady Knights’ defense kicked into play following a first quarter in which they built a somewhat tenuous 11-8 lead on the scoreboard. However, that lead ballooned to 25-14 at halftime after the team’s swarming defensive led to offensive opportunities at the other end of the court.
Victory Christian took advantage of 34 HTH San Diego turnovers in the game.
Youngblood proved especially deadly in the scoring column on lay-in drives while Johnson sank four three-point shots en route to collecting 14 points in the victory.
Five Lady Knights players finished in the scoring column. Adams tallied seven points on the score sheet while sophomore Miranda Kaack had four points. Rouston had two points in the fourth quarter to add to her team-high 10 rebounds.
Victory Christian led 44-26 entering the final quarter and won the final period with a 13-7 scoring advantage despite substituting players near the end of the game.
“We asked the team at halftime whether they wanted to win or not,” Wiley-Gatewood said. “They said they wanted it bad and I told them they had to come out and put them away. They played defense. Everything was working for us.”
Victory Christian sophomore Juliette Ferreyra and HTH San Diego senior Chloe Slack both received sportsmanship awards for their respective teams in the post-game awards ceremony.
Scoring leaders for the Lady Storm (12-4) included junior Alex Tugend with 16 points and Slack with eight points.
HTH San Diego, which is based in Liberty Station, advanced to the championship round following victories over 10th-seeded The Cambridge School (forfeit in the quarterfinals) and third-seeded Crawford (48-46 in the semifinals).
Youngblood led the team with 20 points in a 48-30 quarterfinal-round win over ninth-seeded Central Union on June 5. Kaack dropped in 13 points while Johnson collected 12 points. Adams led the winners with nine rebounds.
The Lady Knights amassed nine three-point shots in the game, including four by Johnson and three by Kaack.
Youngblood poured in 24 points in a 68-24 semifinal win over fifth-seeded Kearny on June 8 while Adams had 19 points. Johnson had 12 points, including three treys, in the game while Kaack contributed 10 points.
With everyone coming back next season and six of the 10 players listed on this year’s roster as either freshmen or sophomores and the remainder as juniors, expect to hear more about the Lady Knights in future seasons.
With two seniors on its roster, HTH San Diego also could be making some noise.
Victory Christian athletic director John Ramirez also serves as the girls basketball team’s assistant coach. He offered kudos to Wiley-Gatewood’s coaching ability.
“I was lucky enough to hire her this summer and she’s back here again,” Ramirez said. “She’s making history wherever she goes.”
The Lady Knights head coach said her formula for success was simple.
“Just getting the girls together and being a family, learning to know and trust each other and play hard,” Wiley-Gatewoid explained in regard to her strategy. “The big thing was being a family and working hard. If you play hard, you’ll have success.
“A lot of the girls had never heard of the CIF playoffs before, they didn’t know what they were. It’s always exciting to win. Division I or Division V is just a number. CIF is CIF.”
Tip-ins
Four of Victory Christian Academy’s six losses were to St. Joseph’s Academy in Citrus League play. St. Joseph’s captured the section’s Division III championship on Thursday with a 45-44 upset win over top-seeded Fallbrook at St. Augustine High School. The Lady Knights also dropped non-league games to El Capitan and Monte Vista high schools in regular season play.
The Lady Knights held their own against much larger-enrollment schools, dealing setbacks to Chula Vista, Steele Canyon and Southwest high schools.
Victory Christian Academy, which has a high school enrollment of approximately 100 students, is proceeding with an 8.5-acre expansion project that has already seen a new gymnasium and football/soccer field constructed.
