Girls’ basketball: Sophomore excels with older competition

All the starters on the girls’ varsity basketball team are upperclassmen. All but one.

Sophomore Dharini Ramaswami is a starting power forward on the team.

“She is only a sophomore and is the best shooter we have had,” junior forward Hannah Johnson said. “Since last year, she has played a lot of basketball and greatly improved her confidence and strength. Dharini is definitely one of the best on the team.”

Ramaswami has been playing basketball since the third grade. While she was not very enthusiastic about the sport at first, she quickly fell in love with it.

“I wasn’t really sure, ‘cause I was like 7,” Ramaswami said. “And my mom was just signing me up for everything, like AYSO and NJB and I just tried out and I started to like it and I’ve been playing a lot.”

In addition to power forward, Ramaswami plays shooting guard and point guard. Ramaswami said an outstanding moment in her basketball career occurred recently when she connected on four three-pointers against Hillsdale on Dec. 31.

Ramaswami said rebounding and executing defense are the main strategic tactics being employed this season.

“We have fewer players this year so we all have to step it up,” Ramaswami said. “But it’s not intimidating because everyone’s really nice and we all joke around. Our main thing is defense; that’s what our coach says.”

Johnson said Ramaswami’s personality is one of the things that make her a great teammate.
“Dharini’s goofy personality makes her even more lovable,” Johnson said. “She is someone that you can’t really stay mad at.”

Ramaswami said the necessary teamwork is her favorite aspect of basketball.

“It’s a team sport,” Ramaswami said, “and even when you mess up on one end of the court you can always make it up on the other end.”

The Falcons beat Cupertino on Jan. 13 and 67-35, Santa Clara 41-29 on Jan. 10, Los Altos 46-36 on Jan. 6 and Homestead 55-25 on Jan. 3.

In addition to playing well in league games, the girls also had a strong run in the Susie Nagpal Saratoga Shootout. They beat Hillsdale 46-36 on Dec. 31, beat Half Moon Bay 55-49 on Dec. 30 and lost to 67-45 Palo Alto Dec. 29.

Johnson said she thinks all the teams they have played so far have been pretty strong.

“We have won all of our league games and our next game is against a team we are tied for first with (Monta Vista),” Johnson said. “We have been working together really well and have been playing really hard so it has been a great start!”

The Falcons will play Monta Vista on Jan. 20.