Class of their own

The All-Metro team consists of players who fill up the stat sheet and lead their respective teams to tri-umph.

Unfortunately there isn't a category for how tough some players are.

St. Joseph's senior April Phillipps is at the helm of the 2008 All-Metro team and while she isn't the Val-ley's leading scorer she is arguably the toughest.

Side by side second-team selection Marissa Shinsky (13.8 points, 3.9 assists, and 4.9 steals per game) and Phillipps (11.6 ppg, 8.9 rpg, 7.6 spg, and 4.6 apg) helped the Lady Bloodhounds (23-9 overall, 7-5 dis-trict) to the regional round of the playoffs where they lost to St. Agnus.

Yet, what most people don't know is that Phillipps was playing with a severely injured ankle.

"We wrapped it up and it was like a cast on her leg," SJA coach Cynthia Martinez said. "But she came out and played a great game. (This season) she was so much fun to watch. She's a great kid. As a coach there aren't too many players that come around like her that often."

Hanna's Cassandra Hinojosa is one of the best all-around players to come out of 32-5A as she posted 13.7 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 5.0 apg and 4.0 spg.

As captain of the Lady Eagles she drove her team on a six-game winning streak that put Hanna back in the playoffs. Along with second-team All-Metro teammates Darlene Piñeda and Roxanne Gutierrez Hanna was able to muster enough momentum for a postseason berth.

"I can't be more proud of the kids at Hanna," Lady Eagles coach Willie Brown said. "The kids battled back this year and it says a lot about their character."

Piñeda had 6.6 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 3.0 apg, 3.0 spg and Gutierrez put up 10.7 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 6.0 apg, 6.0 spg as in intregal part of the late Hanna playoff run.

For San Benito it couldn't have been done without All-Metro first team Jillion Briones. The Greyhounds number one option was irreplaceable and helped lift her team past another first team selection in Lopez' Liz Mendez.

The Lobos and Greyhounds fought for the final playoff spot in 32-5A in a tiebreaker game where Men-dez dropped 13 points but Briones was too much as she had 16 points hitting her average on the season. San Benito's star also averaged an astounding 12.0 rpg along with 3.6 apg and 3.7 spg giving the Grey-hounds back-to-back playoff berths.

"Jill grew up as a leader this year," San Benito coach Thomas Garcia said. "She was our go to player and stepped it up a notch in the second half (of the season)."

Teammate Blanche Trevino had nothing less than a stellar season as well with 12.1 ppg, 11.apg and 3.7 spg to earn her second-team honors.

Rounding off the first team honors are Pace's Sam Saldivar who completely turned her game around to help the Lady Vikings make school history with their first district championship.

After being academically ineligible in the second half of last season coach Arnold Torres said her hard work on and off the floor affected everyone positively.

"She was biggest asset on defense," Torres said. "It gave our defense a little more aggressiveness on the ball having her out there. The fact we lost her in the second round of district last year gave her more passion and worked hard in the classroom and in the offseason which made the players focus more."

Even though the Raiders didn't have the season they wanted to second-team ballot Vero Hinojosa was once again one of the best players in the entire league.

Hinojosa was the lone senior on the team and led the Lady Raiders night in and night out with 16.0 ppg 3.8 rp g and 3.3 apg .

"She was the captain of our team and she was the only senior," Raiders coach Rolando Izeta said. "She led by example on and off the court."