Richard Brian

From left, Bishop Gorman junior basketball player Aaryn Ellenberg, 16, poses with her coach Sheryl Krmpoti and senior basketball player Czar Robotham, 18, stands next to his basketball coach Grant Rice.

By Christopher Drexel

Fri, Nov 21, 2008 (midnight)

Richard Brian

Bishop Gorman senior basketball player Czar Robotham, 18, dribbles the ball in the Bishop Gorman auxiliary gym.

Richard Brian

Bishop Gorman junior basketball player Aaryn Ellenberg, 16, right, works on foot drills as coach Sheryl Krmpoti, center, looks on during a team practice in the school's auxiliary gym.

Dealing with pressure is part of the job description when you're a Bishop Gorman basketball player.

With the rich history of the boys and girls teams, each season brings great expectations.

This winter is no different.

High school basketball practices started across the state Saturday, and at Gorman, that means turning up the training a notch with aspirations of continuing the domination. The boys have won a state-best 11 state titles, while the national ranked girls team has won the last three crowns.

Boys coach Grant Rice and girls coach Sheryl Krmpotich said their teams are prepared for the challenge.

"The kids are used to it," Rice said. "They know if they're coming to Bishop Gorman there will be pressure. We always have high expectations but we put those on our ourselves. If we don't succeed at the end, then we're not happy with the season."

Senior guard Czar Robotham said many of the players were devastated with the end result of last season, even after going 26-4.

"There is pressure after all the players that came through Bishop Gorman," Robotham said. "You turn on the TV last night and see (Gorman alum and Golden State Warrior) C.J. Watson playing. Ultimately, you want to be known as a Gorman player that left their own legacy."

Robotham will be one of three guards with starting experience returning. The others are senior Kylel Coleman and junior Jon Loyd. All three stand 6 feet or shorter, but Rice expects the trio to create match-up problems for opposing teams with their speed.

San Diego and the Utah schools have shown interest in Robotham, while Santa Clara, Pepperdine and Eastern Washington have been in contact with Coleman. Loyd has already gotten attention from Cal, Oregon and TCU even though he hasn't started his junior season.

"We're just going to get after it because all three of those guys can really go," Rice said. "We're still going to run set plays but we're going to go in transition and speed it up a lot this year."

On the girls side, the Gaels must replace Division I players Ashley Gayle (Texas), forward Kiara Belen (UC Irvine) and guard Darriel Gaynor (Oregon) who led them to No. 15 ranking in the nation by USA Today.

But Gorman still has arguably the two best players in Southern Nevada in senior forward Dannielle Diamant and junior guard Aaryn Ellenberg. At 6-4, Diamant signed Northwestern and the speedy Ellenberg is getting attention from schools like UCLA, Notre Dame, Texas and Miami.

"We will do a lot with Dannielle and Aaryn in screen and roll," Krmpotich said. "I really believe this year we're a lot better defensively than we were last year as far as being smart and having more perimeter shooting."

Ellenberg said her and Diamant will be a nucleus other teams won't be able to stop.

"A four-peat is the goal," Ellenberg said. "We lost really good players last year but we still have enough people left to get it done. I don't think anybody is up to Dannielle's level post-wise."

Senior Yahindra Edwards, who saw significant minutes last season, will be another starter at forward. Forward Chelsie Pitt and sophomore guards Ashlynn Gross and Amber Lane are all expected to see significant minutes as well.

Christopher Drexel can be reached at 990-8929 or christopher.drexel@hbcpub.com.