Wildcats' Ashlee Medrano handles the spotlight with ease
Ashlee Medrano reacts after scoring her 1,000th career point Wednesday. (Photo by Rick Rowell) By Paige Mendez, Correspondent For Paloma V...
By Paige Mendez, Correspondent
For Paloma Valley High’s Ashlee Medrano, 1,000 career points is a milestone that means more than a basketball statistic.
The 5-foot-5 senior has been on the Wildcats varsity squad since her freshman year, but thanks to her father’s and grandfather’s passion for the sport, her first years playing basketball were much earlier in her life.
Medrano said her first experiences with basketball were not a matter of love at first sight.
“I started at 4 years old and I didn’t really like it,” Medrano said. “There were just so many kids everywhere and I always played with boys, all the way until high school.”
Despite not loving it from the start, she and her brother—a freshman at Paloma—stuck with it. And even though she didn’t like having to play with the boys when she was younger, she thinks that practice in a differently-paced game has led her to the success she sees now.
“The boys played at a faster pace, so playing with them and hanging with them prepared me to go at my pace,” she said. “They taught me so much.”
That success obviously is shown in her 1,000 career points, a milestone she reached in Wednesday’s victory at Rancho Verde. She is also averaging 23.7 points per game in her senior season, with her high on the year being 34 points back in November.
Head coach Gabriel Flores said that he feels lucky to have a team player like her on the roster.
“It’s a first for me to experience this,” Flores said of Medrano’s career milestone. “She’s never selfish, though. She’s our best passer, on top of being our leading scorer.”
Her teammates see and trust her talent as well.
Junior power forward Gina Misiaita expressed her admiration for Medrano believing in the team enough to stick around even though she could have been recruited to a different school.
“Not only does she believe in herself, but she believes in the team,” Misiaita said. “She chose to stay and that’s a big thing and that means a lot.”
But it’s not just on the court that Medrano is exceptional. Though her parents both admit she’s a little more quiet and unassuming off the court, she’s just as exceptional.
According to her father, Julio C. Medrano, she has only ever had one B grade in her high school career; the rest have been all A’s.
Her dad beamed with pride as he spoke of his daughter’s accomplishments. But when it came time to talk about getting to witness her 1,000th career point, he started tearing up.
Just eight years ago, he was diagnosed with cancer -- making his dream of seeing his daughter fulfill both their dreams in basketball uncertain.
“I’m just so grateful that I actually get to be here for this,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it and I had to tell her that right before I started chemo and cut my hair.”
But after beating cancer in 2017, he has been able to live out the dreams he always had for his kids and basketball.
And he has not missed a single game since.
“His coming back from that showed me how strong he was,” Ashlee Medrano said of her dad’s recovery. “I really wanted to do it for him. It was his dream and now I get to play what he loves and it’s just amazing.”
“That’s a blessing to have him here,” said her mother, Evelyn Medrano. “He’s so passionate about this and we’re so blessed that he is sharing this with all of us, but especially his daughter.”
Sharing in the joy of all her accolades and milestones has brought the family so much pride in Medrano, including her time playing for a Mexico national team as well as her club and high school teams.
Looking forward, they are all hoping that her basketball career can continue into the university level, hopefully at a Division I school.
For now, Medrano is ranked 19th in California in average points per game and that notoriety has surprised her. It sometimes shows up in random members of the community greeting her in public to express their admiration.
Her father said it’s cool to see but she is still in a little bit of shock about her fame.
“I never realized that many people would come to see me, but it’s awesome,” she said.
And that fame will almost certainly rise from here, with this amazing 1,000-point feat happening just this Wednesday night.
“It feels amazing. I never thought I would get this far with basketball,” Medrano said. “This 1,000 point mark is amazing and makes me feel so proud of myself, but I’m just so thankful for all my teammates because they really just support me and always encourage me.”
From Menifee community members, to her teammates and, most importantly, her family, Medrano has a lot of fans in her corner, whatever her future holds.
Ashlee's parents, Evelyn and Julio Medrano, are her biggest supporters. (Photo by Rick Rowell)
