Reading Senior Jaliyah Mora’s biography, it is clear, the love she has for sports. She plays softball, runs track and field, excels on the soccer field, and during the winter, it’s all about basketball. Mora is the team captain this year, “I joined this team to play the sport I love at a competitive level. Also to bring the sisterhood within women’s sports at Englewood.”
Mora says basketball has its ups and downs, but over her 14 years on the court, she has motivation to try her hardest, “My family I do it all for them.”
She is also inspired every day by the other people on the team, “because If I put in the work, they will too, and it will only help us all as a team.”
Mora says being a student-athlete can be rough managing school and basketball. It causes some stress, but working out and training consistently gives her purpose, “I train by working on and off the court and staying on task in the classroom. I also make it a habit to take care of myself, meaning eating healthy and getting rest,”
As team captain, Mora knows she has a lot of people looking up to her. She needs to set the right example, “Having a learning mentality, grace and respect for others and being a leader.”
Mora doesn’t know if her talents will take her to the next level. She would love to play in college, “If I was given a chance I would take the offer in a heartbeat.”
Freshman Willow Levicki has been playing basketball for three years. She thinks Mora is a very good teammate, “She pushes all of us to do the best that we can and always picks us up if we make a mistake. She shows how much she works in both practice and in games.”
Levicki says Mora is a great role model, “Yes. She’s a very good senior leader. She shows us and knows what we need to do even if we make a mistake. She’s always there no matter what. For us,”
Mora has even shared some of her moves from the court, “We’ve learned the Euro stuff. She’s very, very good at that. She loves doing that in front of people,” Levicki said.
And what is that? “It’s like when you try to go up for a layup and instead of going up the normal side, you take a step to the side and then go up,” Levicki said.
Alicia Harper, the head coach of the varsity girls’ basketball team is in her second year at the helm. She believes in Mora, “Yes, she is a captain, one of the captains of our team. And she’s a defensive force for us and every year.”
Harper believes there is one major thing you need to be good at basketball, “Basketball players have to be confident first and foremost. The best basketball players have a very short memory, meaning even if they miss a couple of shots, they could go right back in and shoot a couple more.”
With Mora and other strong players, Harper said, the team has great potential this year, “We would like to as a team, make it to the first round of playoffs. I think we would also like to get ourselves to a record that we’re proud of after a really tough start of the season.”
