Paloma Valley Athletes of the Week: Armijo, Prewitt, Hancock

From left: Jackie Armijo, DeMarco Prewitt, Alize Hancock.

Three student-athletes who have excelled for their teams in early January have been selected by their coaches as Menifee 24/7 Athletes of the Week for Paloma High School.

Senior Jackie Armijo is a four-year varsity player and captain of the Wildcats girls soccer team. Her solid play from the center back position on defense was a key to Paloma Valley's 1-0 victory over Hemet in the team's final nonleague game Jan. 9. Behind her leadership, the team is 9-2-2 heading into Wednesday's Sunbelt League opener at Elsinore, last year's league champion.

"The Hemet game was tough," Armijo said. "They had a couple really good forwards, so our defense really had to work together and communicate with each other.

"We didn't lose any seniors from last year, so we have a lot of chemistry on the team."

She hopes to earn a scholarship to continue her soccer career in college.

Sophomore guard DeMarco Prewitt is one of the leading scorers on the boys basketball team, which lost its league opener to Elsinore on Saturday in the Sunbelt League Showcase, hosted by the Wildcats. Although the team has struggled, Prewitt has displayed the type of leadership he showed as a running back on the football team last fall.

"We've just got to get through it," Prewitt said. "We have to come together as a team and get things done. We get along real well. I think our chances in league are very good. It just comes down to how much we want it, because we can beat any team in the league. We just have to work at it."

Junior guard and team captain Alize Hancock scored 19 points last Saturday to lead the girls basketball team to a 56-35 victory over Elsinore in the Wildcats' Sunbelt League opener. She is averaging 14.8 points per game for Paloma, which is 10-7 overall.

Hancock missed five games with a concussion after taking an elbow to the face early in the season, but she has rebounded to once again be a strong leader for her teammates.

"Our goal is to make it to at least third round of CIF," Hancock said. "Last year we only made it to the first round. We're working together better as a team this year."