CHULA VISTA, Calif. (KGTV) —If you go back prior to the beginning of the basketball season, it appeared the Southwestern College women's team would have their season canceled before they ever tipped it off.
Due to player departures during the off-season, the Jaguars didn't have enough players to field a team.
"Players left for different reasons. For some, their lives were changing, some needed to work, and other players had to move and changed schools."
That left Jaguars head coach Janet Eleazar with a big problem.
"I talked to our athletic director and we started searching for some players on campus."
That is when the Jaguars soccer team stepped in. They became the basketball team.
"We were all on our soccer group chat, and we were like are you guys down to do this? We were like if you do it I'll do it," says Jaguars guard Isabella Lopez.
"It was like if you do it I will do it. We all ended up joining each other as a team," says Jags guard Ariana Lieras.
Just like that, coach Eleazar had a basketball team made up of primarily soccer players.
"I was amazed that half of the soccer team wanted to come out."
From day one, the girls were eager to play, although their experience in the court was next to none.
"None of us had ever played before. We know how to run because of soccer, but we have no experience whatsoever," says Jaguars guard Nikki Pulido.
"I think my expectation was I would be a little bit decent, but no because I had no experience at all," says Lopez.
Coach Eleazar called it basketball 101, as she took baby steps in teaching the game. Now as expected, the team is winless in 11 games, in fact, many of their losses have come by over 100 points.
"We don't take it harshly," says Pulido. "We are happy if we even score a point at all."
However, this story is really about 11 girls from the soccer team who stepped out of their comfort zone all in the name of school pride.
"They are just a special group of girls that are not thinking of just themselves," says coach Eleazar. "They are thinking of the school and their team."
