MIDDLETOWN >> Anthony Bazzano enjoys scoring points every bit as much as the next man, but it’s the lock-down style defense the Middletown High School varsity girls’ basketball coach preaches that carried the Mustangs to a 20-7 season in 2014-15.
Oh yeah, those 20 wins were a school record for the Mustangs, 13 of which came during a North Central League I championship season. Middletown also came within a couple of minutes of beating Marin Catholic in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division IV playoffs.
Bazzano, who has a career record of 39-15 in his first two seasons at Middletown, is the Lake County Record-Bee’s Coach of the Year for girls’ sports.
Like all coaches who excel at what they do, never being completely satisfied is a trademark. So it is with Bazzano.
“We let three or four games get away from us during that regular season,” Bazzano said. “The difference between being 20-6 or 24-2 going into that (playoff seeding meeting) is huge. We ended up with the No. 8 seed and you know who is waiting for you after that (first-round game) … the No. 1 seed. We definitely don’t want to be in that position next season.”
Middletown’s roster, a mix of veterans and youngsters in 2014-15, produced rock-solid results for the Mustangs, who played a difficult non-league schedule before running over the opposition for the most part in the NCL I, including two victories against the team that had given them fits in the previous season, the Cloverdale Eagles.
With no pure shooter on the roster, the Mustangs pounded the ball inside or took advantage of opponents’ mistakes to pile up points. While not a prolific scoring team, Middletown had a knack for grinding its opponents into submission. Junior center Ashlyn Welton, who averaged double figures in points and rebounds, led the way and was later named the MVP on the All-League team.
Middletown won its final 11 league games after suffering its lone loss to Kelseyville. Of the team’s other six setbacks during the season, all were to large schools and most were hotly contested.
While winning the outright league title was a big step in the right direction for the Middletown program, it’s not the ultimate goal … not anymore.
“Our sights are set higher,” Bazzano said. “We approach each milestone one at a time and winning league is one of those, but it’s not our biggest goal.”
That would be winning and advancing in the brutal Division IV playoffs, which is obstacle course full of private-school powerhouses such as Salesian (Richmond), St. Mary’s (Berkeley), Cardinal Newman (Santa Rosa), Justin-Siena (Napa) and others, including Marin Catholic (Kentfield).
While the high school basketball season runs from November to late February or early March, the amount of unpaid time Bazzano puts in readying his players for the challenges ahead is something he doesn’t want to think about.
“I am a nut and I was before I got into the coaching business,” Bazzano said. “I like to dissect games, see how teams respond to different situations and how they counter. The preparation never ends. Our (coaching) system at Middletown has been an evolution … we’re adding to it and learning from it every year.”
While the Mustangs lost two key members of their 2014-15 squad to graduation — seniors Nicole Corsetti and Katie Depp — Bazzano, the director of operations at Mumm Napa in Rutherford, promises the 2015-16 season will be business as usual at Middletown.
“We’re going to be huge, bigger than last year around the perimeter,” Bazzano said. “We will be as tough as anybody we run into.”
As good as the Mustangs have have been each of the last two seasons — 20-7 and 19-8 — the improvement curve is still headed up, according to Bazzano.
