La Mirada Girls Basketball Seniors Capture Their Long-Awaited League Title

The 2024-2025 La Mirada High girls basketball team will be one for the ages as its 54-45 win over Dominguez High last Friday clinched at least a share of the Mid-Cities League title. It’s presumed to be the first league championship for the program in school history, at least in 40 years. PHOTO BY LOREN KOPFF.

February 4, 2025

By Loren Kopff• @LorenKopff on X

For over four decades, the La Mirada High girls basketball program has had to sit and watch six other schools celebrate a Suburban League title. Three of those schools are current members of the 605 League-Artesia High, Cerritos High and John Glenn High, while the other three are either in the Gateway League or Mid-Cities League-Bellflower High, Mayfair High and Norwalk High.

In fact, since the 1997-1998 season, the highest league finish the Matadores had was third place as they came in fifth place eight times, fourth place seven times, sixth place three times and last place once.

Then when the 605 League was put together beginning with the 2018-2019 season, La Mirada watched Mayfair crown itself champions four times before the Gateway League and Mid-Cities Leagues were formed as part of the Suburban Valley Conference. Still, La Mirada was waiting for its turn to celebrate a first place finish.

Now, the Matadores can celebrate as their 54-45 win over Dominguez High last Friday assured them of at least a share of the Mid-Cities League crown. But for La Mirada to get to this point, it had to experience the worst of times and make sure the freshmen of four seasons ago, stayed with the program.

The rebuilding process began with the 2021-2022 season as the Matadores fielded a team of nine players, four of whom were freshmen-Jael Arreguin, Emily Gonzalez, Nayeli Tamayo and Aleeya Willie. The heart and soul of that team was then-sophomore Jirah Domingo, who scored at least 20 points in three of the first seven games. But La Mirada finished that season with a 2-12 mark and went winless in six Suburban League games.

Making matters worse was that La Mirada had a tough time scoring, reaching the 30-point mark three times while not getting 20 points in league play. But the next season would be worlds apart as the Matadores went 10-12 overall and 4-6 in the new Mid-Cities League.

Domingo was still the leader of the team, but Arrequin was beginning to make her presence known as the team now had one senior, one junior and 10 sophomores, including current players Destiny Elmore, Francella Ortiz and Simran Sahota. The team was sitting at 9-9, 3-3 at one point and the scoring had improved immensely.             

Last season’s team of 10 players was the best in school history as the Matadores went 22-7, finished in second place in the Mid-Cities League, splitting their two games with league champion Mayfair, losing to Colton High by a point in the CIF-Southern Section Division 5AA semifinals and willing a CIF Southern California Division 5 state game.

Domingo was still the leading scorer at 20 points per game, but Arreguin was stepping up her game as was Gonzalez, Sahota and Tamayo. Then-junior Hailey Medrano had joined the varsity squad while Willie was no longer in the program, and freshman Jordin Shaw was beginning to make a name for herself, reaching double digits in scoring eight times.

“Honestly, I don’t think I even thought about that,” said Arreguin of winning a league championship. “I just thought that might be a possibility except for this year. Last year, we depended on our best player, Jirah [Domingo], so much. I miss her all the time, but this year I knew I really had to step up my game to help out the team and it paid off.”

Now, all that hard work has paid off as La Mirada (15-10, 8-1) gets set for the playoffs next week. Arreguin has scored at least 10 points in 18 games, including the last 14 entering the final game of the regular season against Norwalk.

“I think she has really stepped it up as team captain this year as far as pushing her teammates,” said Luong. “Not just herself, but just motivating her teammates…and taking more initiative as a team captain, which I’ve been waiting for years to really step up. But this year she’s really stepped up and taken over that role.”

Elmore and Gonzalez have been solid starters, known more for her rebounding performances and Medrano has stepped up her game, scoring a career-high 28 points at Norwalk on Jan. 17 and 21 points against Firebaugh High a week later. Add in the maturity of Shaw, who has complemented Arreguin in the scoring department this season and it’s easy to see why the Matadores have finally reached first place. The only league blemish was a four-point setback to Warren High on Jan. 10.

But with the good comes the bad as La Mirada graduates nine seniors with Shaw the only returning player coming back next season. No matter what happens in the playoffs, the 2024-2025 team will be one for the scrapbook in the history of La Mirada girls basketball.

“They’re my everything,” said Luong of the seniors. “I think least half of the varsity team started off as freshmen on the varsity team. We were the Firebaugh at that time when they were freshmen. We didn’t get wins; they were freshmen and for some of these girls, they were on varsity, and they really never touched the basketball. In the first game [against California High], I didn’t realize I had to go over how to inbound a play. So, they’ve come a long way, and they’ve really developed; they never gave up after a losing season. Even their sophomore year was rough for them. If you keep losing, why would you want to stay on the same team? But they came back every year and every year, they’re setting records.”