Glenns Ferry senior profile: Sara Arellano

In early April, I interviewed Glenns Ferry senior Sara Arellano and we talked about the team's recently concluded basketball season, her sports career and her family. Here is the article that will appear in the Pilots 2011-12 girls basketball yearbook.

Sara Arellano:

She provided much-needed scoring

and came through in the clutch

By Bruce Smith

Matchup

             During the long high-school basketball season which, for the Glenns Ferry girls, lasted about four months, there are a lot of everlasting memories.

            The highlight for the team, of course, was making the 1A Division 1 state tournament. Sara Arellano, however, will relive a certain play for as long as she can remember.
            Glenns Ferry down by two points to Hagerman in the district tournament and 3.5 seconds left. A victory would send the Pilots to state for the first time in 16 years. She had to make both free throws to tie the game …
            We all know the outcome. With the fans cheering, including her grandpa and the rest of her family, she made them both. A 65.7 percent free-throw shooter on the season, she finished the night perfect (4-of-4) at the line.
            “My heart was pounding. I just focused,” she said. “Their girls were walking up behind me and telling me I was going to miss.”
            Hagerman went on to win the game, but it didn’t spoil the moment. Grandpa’s effort to make it to every Glenns Ferry game this year had a big effect, and so did the cheers from her nine siblings. Now, when Arellano ever practices her free throws, she can step up and remember the event time and time again.
            It wasn’t just at the free-throw line where Arellano excelled. She played in every game for two seasons and scored 583 points. As a senior, she was the team’s second-leading scorer, averaging 11.7 points per game, and was the top rebounder.
            She finished strong, too. Her high game was a 19-point effort against Hagerman at state. In fact, she scored in double figures in each of the Pilots’ last six games. She admitted that she liked to shoot the ball, but she also became pretty good at scoring.
            “Teams liked to focus on Karli (McHone), so that made us use our other threats,” she said. “It was either me or Jade (Gorrell). I had to try and get free and was (running) all over the place.”
            Arellano said her best games were at state, but that almost didn’t happen. She broke her finger late in the year and the first doctor she visited told her it had to be placed in a splint and she would be unavailable for two weeks. She got a second opinion, however, and that physical let her play.
            “It was really close,” said coach Kelli McHone. “For a while there, we didn’t know.”
            Arellano had 18 points in Glenns Ferry’s 62-49 win over Cascade, which put them into state. She was the top scorer (10 points) in the opener against Prairie, and made 7-of-8 free throws. She said her biggest effort came the next night against Hagerman.
            “I was ‘on’ in that game,” she said. “I don’t know how it happened, but it was one of my best games.”
            Glenns Ferry led 27-10 at halftime, but before Hagerman could rally, Arellano connected on three straight three-pointers. The Pilots ended up winning comfortably. It was their only win of the tournament, but a memorable one.
            “That was one of our biggest wins of the season,” said coach McHone. “It was important for us to make it to state, but it was also important for us to play well there.”
            Arellano was one of the best athletes at Glenns Ferry this year. Besides basketball, she played on the Pilots softball and track teams. In track, she competed in the shot put and discus. She recorded her career bests as a senior and scored the team’s only point at the state meet with an eight-place finish in the discus.
            When the basketball season ended, she said her senior year was the best.
            “We felt more like a team,” she said. “It was a family.”