Gold is all that will suffice for Glendale’s Homenetmen squad
Zareh Zargarian, of the local Homenetmen men’s basketball team, with banners representing their success at past Pan-Armenian Games, takes a jump shot at practice at the Glendale Ararat Chapter gymnasium in Los Angeles on Tuesday, July 28, 2015.
Twelve years ago, Zareh Avedian set the bar for himself and the Glendale men’s basketball team that represented the Homenetmen Ararat Chapter in the Pan-Armenian Games.
In the championship game of the 2003 finals, Avedian’s 49-point, 20-rebound performance propelled Glendale to the title and instilled an attitude in the Glendale team that a championship was expected from the group of 12 players who traveled to Yerevan, Armenia for the games.
Four years later, a second-place finish left Glendale disappointed. In 2011, a bronze medal left Glendale in need of a new youth infusion.
Younger players have been added to this year’s squad, but Avedian remains, and the only player left over from the 2003 team is set on bookending his international playing career with gold medals.
“Any time I step on the court, I want to win,” said Avedian, a 1999 Hoover High graduate who was also an All-Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference selection at Cal Lutheran.
“I want to win this last one. It would be my best championship.”
Fellow Hoover graduate Zareh Zargaryan, who also played at Cal State Dominguez Hills, and former Glendale Community College standout Narbeh Ebrahamian will presumably join Avedian in the starting lineup in their quest for the gold. Zargaryan and Ebrahamian were each part of the 2011 team that fell short of its expectations.
“We’ve tasted defeat and it doesn’t feel good,” Zargaryan said. “In 2011, I feel that we were the best team, but we didn’t come together. We beat ourselves.”
One of Glendale’s strength will be its experience in international competition. The three former collegiate players have become accustomed to the physical play, the longer three-point line and the limited practice time that is available to teams in Armenia. Also returning are Shara Davoodi, a 2008 All-Pacific League selection from Hoover, as well as Misak Balian (North Hollywood, 2008) and Azad Galustian (Glendale, 2001).
“The pain of losing stings,” Galustian said.
The absence of a gold medal from the past two competitions made coach Fred Babadjanians and his staff realize that Glendale needed more athleticism on its roster.
Gone were veterans who played on the 2003 team and inserted were Hoover High graduates Samson Injigulyan and Teo Davidian and Glendale High grads David Yetinikyan and Sevan Pogosyan, all former all-league selections who give Babadjanians the versatility to play with small or big lineups.
“The older guys have the experience,” said Pogosyan, a guard who will draw attention with his three-point shooting skills. “We come in there and we know who to get the ball to and we know what our role is. We have all come from teams when we were the guy. Now we have to know what our role is and we have to be committed to that.”
Glendale will have to trek through a pool-play round in hopes of advancing to the playoff competition during the Pan-Armenian Games, which begin Sunday and end Aug. 13.
Glendale will begin pool play Tuesday with a contest against Musaler (Armenia). The following day Glendale will play Gyumri, which is the second largest city in Armenia, and will continue pool-play action with a game against Urmia (Iran) on Thursday. Glendale will conclude pool play with a contest against Thessaloniki (Greece). The playoff rounds will begin Aug. 9.
Glendale’s players know they’ll likely see a team from Los Angeles in the competition. Glendale High graduates Vahram Amayakyan and Artin Adjamian each played supporting roles in helping Los Angeles defeat Sochi, Russia, 93-86, to win the 2011 gold medal. Sochi ruined the championship aspirations of Glendale a day earlier, defeating Babadjanians’ team, 87-82, in overtime. Glendale went on to defeat Tehran, 91-87, in the third-place game.
Without knowing much about other teams, Glendale’s players will have to trust each other, Babadjanians said.
“If we can play together and trust each other, we are going to be set up for success,” the former Glendale High girls’ basketball coach said. “Those are the things that we can control. We can’t control our shooting percentage and our free-throw shooting. We have to be mature and do it for the names on our chest instead of the names on the back of our jerseys.”