AHS basketball’s starting center becomes the school’s all-time points leader
Staff Writer
On December 27th, 2023, against the Orland Trojans, Kiratraj Sanghera (12) scored his 1,000th career point in an American Jersey. Just a month later, January 24th, against Newark Memorial, Sanghera became American’s all-time leading scorer.
Ed Villatoro, American Basketball’s Varsity coach and Sanghera’s coach for 3 years, said, “The record right now is 1211 points. That’s a record that has stood since 1990, so that’ll be a huge accomplishment for him to reach that.”
Having broken this record against Newark, Sanghera said in a postgame interview, “All the hard work is finally paying off and I’m proud of myself.”
Additionally, Sanghera broke the single season scoring record for a sophomore athlete while averaging 14 points per game. He followed this by averaging 18 points per game and breaking the single season scoring record for a junior athlete.
For Sanghera, high school achievements are just the beginning. “My head coach came up to me and said it was a great accomplishment, but he knows there’s more to come, we still have games to go. So he told me he was proud of me and he was like, ‘keep your head down and keep grinding and there’s more to come.’”
For now, more to come may mean team success. “My personal goals are similar to my team goals. We really want to make playoffs. We haven’t made playoffs since 2013,” said Sanghera. “Mindset wise, just whatever it takes to get the team to win. Just go into the game with the mentality like just do whatever to win. Whether that is going out and scoring a bunch, or maybe I go out there and I do other things like rebound, play defense, pass the ball.”
Both team success and individual scoring can only be achieved through teamwork. “Jordan Bucko (12), Sahaj Bahia (12). I met them when I was in fifth grade, and I’ve been playing with them and they’ve just been sticking with me,” said Sanghera. “a lot of chemistry, especially with Jordan. We know each other’s roles on the court.”
Bucko, a longtime teammate of Sanghera’s said, “[team chemistry] makes a big difference. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and we use that to our advantage on the court, being able to put ourselves in positions to score and help our team win.”
Villatoro agreed, “it’s a wonderful individual accomplishment. But for him to score that many points, the players have to look for him and get him the basketball, set screens to get him open. So even though he’s scoring the points, it’s a team effort to get him in that position.”
Ravneet Sanghera, a former American student, who attends games to support her brother, said, “I feel like his sportsmanship has gotten really good over the past three years. If [his teammates] make a mistake, he’s always going to be there to give them a pat on the back and I feel like that’s something that’s really needed to keep a team together.”
Bucko said of Kiratraj’s support, “He’s been with me through the worst days and the best days. He works so hard, gives me motivation to do better as well. He’s allowed me to become the player that I am today.”
Kiratraj’s actions have not gone unnoticed by his coaching staff. “To be a leader out on the basketball court, if you learn those skills now, you can apply those skills later on in life,” said Villatoro. “And it’s going to pay off for him later when he gets to college and becomes a young man, and goes into the working world.”
Caption: Playing against Newark Memorial, American’s all-time leading scorer Kiratraj Sanghera (12) rises over three defenders. AHS Varsity Boys Basketball head coach Coach Ed Villatoro said of his time coaching Kiratraj, “It’s been an amazing experience, his outstanding attitude just makes it really easy to coach and his effort, just overall positive energy makes him a great person to coach” (PC: Daniel Davis (11)).
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