By MARTY JAMES martyjames.sports@gmail.com

Arianna Aguilar calls it her journey.

It's a journey that she has been on since having surgery on March 20 on her right foot.

It's a journey that is geared toward taking her back to the basketball court and her place on the Napa Valley College women's team.

It's a journey all about commitment, courage, dedication, passion and love for the game, and an absolute determination to come back for her sophomore season as one of the Storm's captains and team leaders.

"Getting through all these injuries, it's just part of my journey," Aguilar said in July.

This is not the first time that Aguilar has worked to return from injury.

She did not play her freshman year at St. Patrick-St. Vincent of Vallejo due to fracturing her wrist.

She suffered an injury to her ankle, tearing ligaments and part of a tendon, playing in a game for West Coast Elite, an AAU team, during the summer before her sophomore year in 2021. She was limited to playing in 11 games for St. Patrick-St. Vincent that season.

"I really didn't get to start playing high school basketball until going to the end of junior year," she recalled. "So, only my senior year was my full year of high school basketball."

Paul DeBolt, Napa Valley's head coach, took notice of Aguilar's play at St. Patrick-St. Vincent. She had a standout senior season, averaging 15.6 points and 3.5 rebounds per game for the Bruins.

"They had a lot of good players at St Pat's. Ari, to me, really stood out as just a great all-around player, and someone you could tell had a good rapport with everyone on her team and with her coaches," said DeBolt.

"She plays so hard and she's an intelligent basketball player. A smart student-athlete, too. She has high goals for herself."

Aguilar's No. 1 goal is to continue working to get back healthy so that she can be ready to play on opening night when Napa Valley begins the 2025-26 season at the Pasadena City College Crossover, a four-team event, on Oct. 31. It's a 28-game regular-season schedule.

"I'm excited," said Aguilar, 19. "I just want to get on that court. I want to compete. These girls are working hard in there. So, I'm definitely ready to see what this season is going to bring. We're already building a lot of good chemistry now.

"I just want to be able to do my best for my teammates, for myself, for my parents, especially Coach (DeBolt). He's got a lot of expectations for me, but they're really good expectations. So, I'm 100 percent ready, yes."

The 5-foot-6 Aguilar had a stellar freshman season for Napa Valley, helping out in so many ways as a shooting guard, point guard and defender, as the Storm (17-12 overall, 13-3 Bay Valley Conference) advanced to the California Community College Athletic Association-Northern California Regional Championships for the third straight year.

She scored 22 points, going 6-of-12 from 3-point distance, while also contributing four rebounds, two assists and two steals in the Storm's 76-66 loss to host Chabot College-Hayward in the first round of the playoffs.

Aguilar was a unanimous first-team All-Bay Valley Conference selection for Napa Valley, which finished in second place in the league.

The Storm was recognized by the California Community College Women's Basketball Coaches Association in the final State Top 25 Rankings. They were listed as among "Best of the Rest," as announced by the California Community College Athletic Association, in a report, at www.cccaasports.org, on March 19.

"She had a great season. Not only that, but she's a clutch player. She made big shots for us all year. She was just a rugged type of a player," said DeBolt. "She can finish in many different ways around the basket. Solid defender. She took on the role of being a point player in our 1-3-1 zone defense. She did it a lot.

"Just a real humble kid who loves basketball, plays hard. Very good player, good teammate. She's got a high ceiling in basketball, so we're trying to keep her healthy and bring her along in a very safe way.

"She wants to play. It's killing her not to be on the court."

The surgery for Aguilar, a metatarsal bone fusion that was performed by Dr. Gray Reynolds Williams, was done at Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center.

"Back in 2021, I tore my ankle. I didn't get the surgery for it. I did about six months of physical therapy. I didn't know, like in the future, there would be problems with the foot. So, a lot of my foot and my bones, they like shifted. I had really bad bone shifts. So, they had to go in there and fuse my bone and place screws to hold the bone in the right place," Aguilar explained.

"They fused it, and they shift the bone to the correct place."

Because of surgery, Aguilar has been limited with what she can do in basketball during the offseason.

She was in a boot for two weeks. She then had her foot in a cast for six weeks.

"The first couple of weeks were very painful," she said. "I couldn't do much."

She has gotten extensive physical therapy from Christina Strangio Alessi.

"Definitely, the first physical therapy appointment was one of the hardest, because I couldn't move much," said Aguilar. "Range of motion was terrible, just learning how to move that foot. It's kind of just like matching my mind to my body. A lot of that was very hard.

"I just worked super hard. I did all the physical therapy outside of the appointments."

Her comeback has also included pool therapy, icing, walking, riding a stationary bike, and jump rope.

She has been on the sidelines, working on her own and getting up shots and doing ball handling, during the team's summer session. She has been using the weight room for strength and conditioning, plyometrics and agility work.

She was cleared to start jumping in July. She was cleared last week to start running.

"I come in here every day. It's definitely difficult to get back into the basketball shape," she said. "Once I'm able start to being able to run, I need to consistently do it so I can get my body back and my lungs working again."

On top of it all, she has been in the gym, supporting and encouraging her teammates every step of the way. Aguilar is one of five returning sophomores. There are also nine incoming freshmen on the team.

"I went through it before, tearing my ankle back in high school, so I was kind of ready for everything that was going to come. But it's definitely been a little bit of a journey," she said. "Having to sit here is probably one of the hardest things to do when you really love the game. You want to get out there and meet all these new teammates, but I'm trying to do everything I can to help them.

"I want to get to know every single one of them. I want to help them on their journey. I want to see them go far. I want to be a good teammate. Even though I'm sitting on the sideline, I just pat them on the back and I let them know, 'You're a really good player.'

"It's a very big thing, being present for each and every one of your teammates."

Aguilar said going through surgery opened her eyes up to just how much she loves the game.

"I'm very excited for this season," she said. "It's definitely always fun to compete and play hard, winning those close games that we're going to have. I have high expectations for myself. I want to be a leader for my newest teammates and as well as the sophomores.

"Coach (DeBolt) has set high expectations for me too, but that's what I need as a player. It's very good to have a coach like him who's willing to help me, has expectations for me, sees my potential."

Aguilar played very well as a freshman last year, averaging 15.7 points per game on 41.8 percent shooting from the floor, 33.3 percent from 3-point distance, and 58.3 percent at the free-throw line.

She scored 407 points last year.

She also averaged 4.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.

Aguilar scored a season-high 31 points on 12-of-21 shooting from the field and 3-of-4 from 3-point range in a game against College of Marin-Kentfield last year.

She scored 27 points on 11-of-21 shooting from the floor and 5-of-12 from 3-point distance in a game against Solano Community College-Fairfield.

"She's been in the gym pretty much every day all summer, working on stuff, things that she can do," said DeBolt. "We're hoping to get her ramped and up ready to go after Labor Day. But just having her here, she's just a real special player, a very special part of our program. When she's not here, we feel it."

Aguilar played through the pain in her foot last year.

"It was hurting me and it was very painful, but I did not want to miss the season. I just played through it. I did everything I could," said Aguilar.

She did a lot of ankle rehab with icing last year.

Aguilar returned for the Storm after missing a week, including the last two games of the regular season, with a lung infection last year.

She is so appreciative and thankful for the support and help she has gotten from her mom, Brandi Aguilar; her sister, Reina Aguilar; and DeBolt.

"My mom never let me get in a slump," Arianna said. "She has helped me through a lot of it. I just kept on telling my mom, 'I hope I get cleared to run today. I hope I get cleared to jump today. I want to play basketball.' And she just kept telling me, 'It's going to come. You can't rush this.'

"Coach, I know he really wants me on the court. He's definitely telling me, 'You're doing great. We can't wait to have you back.' "

* Marty James is a freelance writer who makes his home in Napa. He retired on June 4, 2019 after spending 40 years as a sports writer, sports editor and executive sports editor for the Napa Valley Register, a daily newspaper in Napa County. He is a 1979 graduate of Sacramento State and a member of the California Golf Writers & Broadcasters Association. He was inducted into the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Hall of Fame in 2016, the Vintage High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019, and the Napa High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022.