If you’re Filipino, which sports hero reps your flag with pride? That warrior for the people, Manny Pacquiao, right?
To me, rising senior Kimberly Villalobos has that same tough spirit. She’s a dope small forward for her Salvadorean National basketball squad.
What do Kimberly and I both have in common? We both have family living down in El Salvador. The country is not given enough credit in the American media and it needs to be known.
Its people are vibrant and warm hearted, its geography is tropical green with lush beaches. The culture has salsa dancing and delicious pupusas to eat. Pupusas? Think flour tortillas with cheese bubbling inside, YUM!
GET THIS, Kim lives in LA but she’s so famous in El Salvador that she has tons of posters in the country that her dad Enock is from. I asked my fam down there if they saw Kim’s poster. They’re like, yup, poster after poster in a tienda ( shop ) of K-Villalobos, spinning a ball on her elegant fingers.
She’s famous and well respected there, as she in the US. Kim’s adoring dad loves his homeland.
You might be asking me, is Kim really that good E-Woods? It’s possible she might be the best baller that the Salvadoran National Team ever produced. 100.
Kim isn’t just a super athletic 5 feet 11 inch woman-child. No, you looking up to K-Villalobos is like she’s 6,211 feet tall. You gone crazy E-Woods?
Well, her game and smooth personality remind me of this gigantic volcano outside the capital of San Salvador, El Boquerón. Stand near it, it’s towering, fertile, green, a larger than life structure and impressive. Yet beautiful like Kim is.
Is Boquerón going to erupt soon you might ask? Well, it hasn’t blown up since 1917. I feel that Kim will be blowing up in California prep competition this year. Last year she averaged like 19 ppg for Alemany High before recently transferring to Chaminade.
Kim’s age? 17 years old. Get it? 19 ppg & 17 reference, [1917] blow up time in 19-20’ season.
How might Chaminade do this year? Kim will play with her good friend and recent Wooden Award winner, Alexis Whitfield, and sharpshooter Jasmine Rodriguez, super cool kid who also plays on the Salvadorean team with Kim.
Chaminade vs Sierra Canyon, or Windward High: that’s future must watch TV!
Why? Chaminade is gunnin’ for that CIF state chip no doubt. I asked Kim where did she learn to play basketball and what does the game mean to her. She said “I learned to play with my cousins, starting around age 5.
”I was shown how to be tough. My older brother Enock Jr, he’s studying criminology at CSUN, we would battle growing up. A lot of credit goes to my great friend Denise Yescas. She’s my age, we’d push each other to get better and we played together on my first AAU team in 7th grade called No Dribble.
“I’d just spend time at Roscoe Park playing early in life, I fell in love with the game. And being a part of Team Taurasi, it’s a sisterhood. I’m also blessed because of my current AAU coach George Quintero. He cares for me, challenges me, all of us actually, to get focused, be into details.
“Nowadays, I have only a little free time and often work out at my own gym. I’m lucky my dad set up a 1/2 dozen machines and a tread mill in our home.”
For the record, to save some money I asked for a free membership to her house gym. It’s better than my current 24 Hour fitness. Kim said keep your spot E-Woods, no membership here, no dice!
All kidding aside, K-Villalobos is an extremely talented player. Known for her offense, her footwork is impeccable. She’s aggressive to the rim from either elbow out and hits baseline shots with ease. Kim is a rebounding machine for being a small forward but she wants to transition to being a guard in college.
Kim holds more than 10 D1 college basketball offers but what impresses me so much, why I feel so connected to her, is that Kim took the time to listen to my advice.
Actually a few people gave her the same advice and challenged her a few months ago. She was told that if she wanted to be the best version of herself, that meant being better as a defensive player. She could then impact both sides of the court.
Kim is amazing to me because she took that personal challenge and earned our respect. She increased her stamina and played as a 2 way player in a more voracious way on D.
I’ll let Kim explain, “I started to visualize what I wanted to be at the next level in college. My goal was to improve my performance so I put a lot more into extra running to help build my endurance. I have also taken on this challenge of guarding the other team’s best offensive player.
“In my mind when I’m in my zone I feel unstoppable. Better defense from me meant trying to communicate on defense more, switch outs between teammates, getting to the ideal spot back in transition to shut down a hot playing opponent. I love the game enough to will myself to play both ways.”
#Kim V is on the grind
I’ve seen Kim play so often that I notice parts of other pros’ traits in her game DNA. I asked her who she tries to play like. She said, “I appreciate the fluidity of Candice Parker, the power of Maya Moore, the college dominance of Sabrina Ionesco. I am just me at the end of the day but I try to add in different aspects from these players in my own game.”
I asked so many of Kimberly’s teammates to give me an adjective on her. I asked like 10 different teammates and close friends, like Ashley Orozco who balled at Alemany and Kim’s Taurasi teammates.
They all just raved to me about this special sweet girl, to be a friend of Kimberly is a big deal to so many like Rayah, Vanessa, Alexis, so many teammates of hers.
Here’s what they told me about her, “Amazing, loving, sweet, tough, caring, a baller’s baller, unique, sweet, tha one.” It’s not an understatement to say everyone wants to chill with Kim. Well, except maybe her opponents.
They don’t want to chill with her in games because in games Kim is like a human ice pick, deadly and dangerous. She breaks off pieces of her comp into little ice cubes and watches them melt onto the wooden floor after busting them up for a 20 or 30 ball game.
That’s not uncommon from this killa player, her name starts with a capital “K.”
Enock, her dad, gotta love that guy. He is always showing effort to help kids from El Salvador, kids from the US too. He helps out the Salvadorean National team. Man, meeting this dad I just shook his hand and said dude you’re a blessing.
I love what he has done to promote his baby girl, raised her to be classy, a role model to other kids no doubt. You talk on the phone or sit with Enock, he’ll whoop out a photo of Kim when she was 5, medal around her neck. That melts your heart melt right there, seeing that sparkle in his eyes. Easy to know Kim is loved, that she’ll be successful in life. Enock cares with every cell in his body for kids, he is Kim’s #1 fan no doubt.
Kim is really good with taking and listening to people, very verbal and easy going. It doesn’t surprise me she wants to have a career maybe in psychology or sports medicine. I asked Kim who she looked up to. She said the Bucks’ super star Giannis Antetokounmpo because he put in the work to be the best. He came from humble beginnings in Greece, selling watches to tourists. He had food in his belly some days, some days going hungry.
Kim sees the struggle that people go through in El Salvador, or in Mexico where her mom is from. She feels connected to the people in her parents’ country of origin. She dreams and wants badly to find a way to help them as an adult.
Kim knows the opportunity she has in the US and that her parents sacrificed to prepare her family to be successful, like her 28 year-older brother Manuel-Felix. Kim has the biggest heart, you see it shining out through her body in her dope smile. It’s as bright as a diamond, she’s a gem of a youngster.
On February 28, the national Salvadoran youth governing agency Funfes and its president Yamil Bukele, brother of the president of the country, gave Kim this fantastic crystal trophy for being the best Salvadoran ball player in the US today.
Crazy impressive, right? But well deserved. Kim told me about the award, “That was a big moment because others put a lot into me. That inspires me to put lots into other people.”
How special is Kim? She was picked just a few days ago to be a camp counselor at Kobe Bryant’s Mamba Academy, that extremely prestigious camp. I’m at the Mamba Academy watching Kobe, he’s coaching kids to be their best.
Kim is right next to Kobe helping the kids, showing them skills, being there for children. Many know me, E-Woods, I’m an elementary school teacher besides a writer. I wish ALL MY students will grow up to be a FANTASTIC person and player like Kimberly Villalobos is.
Maybe Kim, like Kobe, will put up 61 point performances later in life. Easy to see she’ll impact the game, be as great as a 6,211 foot tall volcano named Boquerón.
Me? Am I going to hike that volcano? No way, it might melt my face with hot lava bro, it might blow me straight to heaven.
I’d rather go see volcanic Kim play, seeing her game is like heaven, it’s cool to just watch her blowing up, feel a part of her journey.
My question to you the reader is, will you go with me to see her play, will you sit with me in the stands?
