Kata Cabrera’s Determination helps her Overcome Obstacles No matter the obstacle, Katarina Cabrera is hard-wired to persevere — always refusing to give up. Salinas, CA, April 05, 2020 - The Alisal High School senior can certainly thank her parents for that trait,
but the game of basketball also helped her develop her signature spunk and stamina. “I have been playing basketball my whole life, and fell in love with it,” said Katarina, whose friends call her Kata for short.
When Gil Basketball Academy began 11 years ago, Kata couldn’t wait to sign up. “It was so exciting because it was a big group of kids, and we did drills, we scrimmaged, it was great,” she said. A coach told her about GBA’s select travel teams and she joined — “no questions asked.” “My dad took me to the next practice, and to my surprise it was all boys, no girls in sight,” she said. “At first I was a little overwhelmed and nervous, but once we got into practice all the nerves sorta just went away.” Kata competed against boys for two years, “and today those boys on my team are some of my closest friends,” she said. “I was like one of the guys with them. I feel like it pushed me to feel more