With a prodigious goal in mind, Angel Perez of the Granite Hills boys basketball stuck to it his whole senior year.
Perez joins a group of only three other Grizzlies in history to scored 1,000 points in their high school career. Perez also earned all-East Sequoia League honors and was selected as the league MVP this past season.
The Grizzlies had a solid season with an overall record of 19-10 and a league record of 5-3 and were seeded No. 2 in the Division V Valley playoffs. Perez's coach and Granite Hills Athletic Director Bud Luther mentioned his original goal was to try be MVP and on his journey he set a high bar.
Perez played four years on varsity but scored just 27 points as a freshman, 48 points as a sophomore and 295 points as a junior. He needed 630 points as senior to reach 1,000 and ended up scoring 692 to finish his career with 1,062 points.
He joins Zack Grasmick, Kilon Bradford, Jonah Ruckman and Kilon Bradford as 1,000-point scorers at Granite.
He averaged 24.7 points a game this season which was fourth overall among all scorers in the Valley. He was third in field goals made overall in the Valley (272), fourth overall in the Valley in three-pointers made (73, 37 percent from three-point range) and ranked in the top 20 in the Valley in free throws made (71 percent) and steals. He also ranked No. 8 in the state in scoring in Division V.
When asked about his 1,000 point achievement Perez said “It feels amazing, I was so excited and worried and nervous. It was an amazing thing, I thought I wouldn't be able to do it but I'm happy to really have exploded in my shots.
“It's been fun to work with all of my teammates and coach Luther. They've all taught me some really good lessons that I used on and off the court. Pushing each other and ourselves with these games has made us try for the best.”
Perez also talked about the challenges of being a team captain. “It always has its own challenges; just dealing with emotions of teammates and myself when a game isn't going well or we run into a tough spot,” he said. “I always just tried to keep my teammates heads up, just hustle to keep up and have their eyes on the prize.
We had a few hard fought games like the one against Santa Maria. We won 61-54 so it was only a few baskets that brought us to win but they were really important and we fought hard for them.”
Perez spoke further about his ambitions including his future thoughts and plans: “ I've really been considering going to Porterville College and studying Kinesiology. I'm not decided yet so anything can happen but I want to find something I like to do and pursue it.”
“Angel is a great kid. He's got some of the highest character I've seen in a young athlete.” Luther said. “He's a really congenial kid, he talks with everyone. Other athletes, coaches, refs; It's impressive. I've had coaches get compliments from other schools that spoke about how respectful and nice he is.
He's been growing steadily with the other teammates he's played with and working hard with. It's basically them setting goals and proving they can reach them with a strong work ethic. Angle has been working incredibly hard and it's self-evident it's earned when you look at his performance. He will be sorely missed after his senior year but he'll do well in his future plans. He didn't arrive in high school as the best but he's certainly leaving as one of them.”
