Story by: Trevor McCormick, Staff Writer
Photo by: Viviana Valencia, Editor-In-Chief
The Cypress College women’s basketball team has achieved a five-game winning streak this season after its impressive 2024-25 season. Head Coach Brittany Imaku, a former player and assistant coach, shared her thoughts on the team’s progress compared to last season and how they intend to continue their success.
Compared to last year’s strong record of 9-3 in the Orange Empire Conference and an overall seasonal record of 21-9, the Chargers finished second in the championship finals. Reflecting on that deep postseason run into the SoCal Regionals, Imaku said, “I think the coaching staff did a great job of bringing in a good freshman class. We had struggled through the year before. So we were very intentional in bringing in a good freshman class that can carry the torch for over two years, and they brought our culture back to life.”
Imaku highlighted the natural evolution of the team’s strategy, “I would say this team this year has more depth and takes a little more pride defensively,” Imaku said. “Last year was more offense-minded. I think this year is a little bit more of a balance, where we do like to score. We’re playing a lot faster this year, but there’s a pride on the defensive end, which I think is helping with our success as well.”
Despite the growth, Imaku acknowledged that obstacles have already tested the team this season. “I would say we’ve had some early injuries, so some players now have to play more minutes. But I think now we’re getting everybody back, which I think is going to help us even more with our depth.”
Imaku also spoke about the greatest strengths of this year’s team compared to the last season, emphasizing the chemistry that has helped them connect on and off the court.“I would say the openness to being happy for the we (team). We’re excited for our teammates to do well and know that we’ll have our moment and our time to shine.” From Imaku’s perspective, this year’s team became like-minded right away, whereas last year’s team took a little while to get on board with one another.
With the team’s strengths and challenges in mind, Coach Imaku made it clear what her goals for the team are this season: “I think a big goal is just for us to get better every day…I would love to win a conference championship. Would love to get to the state tournament and bring a championship back,” said Imaku. She then went on to express the importance of getting her players scholarships at the end of the year, so that they could then go on to push even further as students and as people in general.
