ATHLETE SPOTLIGHT: Milpitas Boys Basketball Player Marcus Rita

Career Highlight: “Probably my freshman year against Bellarmine,” Rita said. “Everyone on the team was down and had given up hope. It was my first time I got to play. I just went out there and tried to prove myself. I tried to do as much as I could. Everyone told me I played really good after the game. I got minutes every game since.”

Go-to Move: “I like to use my jab step or give my defender a pump fake,” Rita said. “Then I usually do a one dribble pull-up jumper.”

College Plans: “ I would love to keep playing in college,” Rita said. “I’m only a sophomore, but a scholarship to play anywhere would be great.”

Favorite Activity off the Court: “Just hanging out with friends,” Rita said.

Favorite TV Show: Family Guy.

Best Game: “The Gilroy game this year,” Rita said. “I felt like I kept everyone’s hopes up early. I tried my best to keep us in the game. It was a fun game. If Buddy (Ames) had played, we probably would have won that game.”

Teammate(s)You’ll Never Forget: “Chuck Payumo and Terrance Hartley,” Rita said. “They helped me so much, especially my freshman year. I felt like when all three of us where on the court, no one could stop us from winning.”

Thoughts About the Arrival of His Younger Brother to Milpitas High Next Season: “I can’t wait for that,” Rita said about his younger brother Christian Rita coming to MHS next Fall. “I’ve been playing with him my whole life. He’ll make varsity right away, I know it.

Do the Rita Brothers Have Similar Styles on the Court? “We’re both shooters and decent ball handlers,” Rita said. “We both also like to drive the ball hard to the basket. He’s taller than a lot of the middle school kids so he turned into a pretty good shot blocker in middle school.”

The final two questions of the interview were directed to Milpitas High boys basketball coach Champ Wrencher.

Best Skill: “It’s hard to narrow down with Marcus, but it’s probably his floor game,” Wrencher said. “He makes very sound decisions with the basketball. He was kind of raw as a freshman. He learned the hard way practicing against varsity players all year. I always know I’m going to get good game management when the ball is in his hands.”

Lasting Memory: “Seeing him start,” Wrencher said. “He didn’t have the benefit of playing JV and getting time to play early. He did it the hard way. You can see he learned from playing with the older players and he’s a better player because of it now.”

This Season: “The guys finally had to learn how to win,” Wrencher said. “It took the first six weeks for them to work it out. Once things started clicking, I just went along for the ride. We had a lot of different leading scorers. A lot of double digit victories.”

Next Year:  “Can we take it up another level, that’s the main question,” Wrencher said. “One level, maybe two levels. We have a good core of players coming back so we’ll see how things turn out.”