Torres inspires Viqueens to historic season

Arnold Torres expected nothing less than greatness from his Pace Viqueen basketball squad this sea-son and they obliged with the school's first district banner in school history.

In his ninth season at the helm at Pace, Torres steered the Viqueens to their most successful season ever and is a unanimous selection as The Herald's All-Metro coach of the year.

The Viqueens (24-10 overall, 11-3 in District 32-5A) were not one of those dominant teams that just stepped on the floor and overwhelmed opponents and they did not have a high scoring player night in and night out. What they did have was an experienced and motivated club that was hungry for success.

"Everyone came in and knew their role and everybody was fine with that," Torres said. "There wasn't any bickering; they knew that if they did what they were supposed to do then they would be successful. That was a big part of it."

The Viqueens were not without talent though. In fact, the strength of the team was its versatility and quality play across the board. Led by their steady point guard Vanessa Beltran, an athletic and defensive-minded post player in Samantha Saldivar (7.9 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.6 blocks and 2.3 steals per game) and District 32-5A Sophomore of the year Cindy Castillo (9 ppg, 7.9 rpg) Pace was a difficult team to contend with on both ends of the court.

Torres' job was to convince the girls that they were good enough to be champions.

"I knew from last year that we had a lot of girls returning and I felt that we should have been in the playoffs," he said. "Everything we went through at the end of the season kind of took us back a little bit. I think getting everyone back, focused and getting them to realize that they had the potential to do well was a key."

Beltran noticed a difference in her coach during the season and welcomed a new side from her coach during the season.

"He has come a long way," Pace point guard Vanessa Beltran said. "He used to be easy on us but this year he started yelling at us. We weren't used to it but later on we got used to it and I think that's what helped us most."

Torres believes that the success in 2008 can be a building block for future teams to grow from and says that it will serve as a teaching tool to show kids what can be accomplished when a group of people come together on the same page.

He was also quick to point out that the team had a lot of support from outside of the team.

"A lot of our success was due to the support from our administration, from our faculty and from our families," Torres said. "It was a lot of hard work and a lot of long hours, especially for our assistant coaches."