Malia Mowad ’27 returns in the 2024-2025 basketball season for the Foothill Technology High School (Foothill Tech) girls varsity basketball team after recovering from a season lasting leg injury. Mowad returned to her position as shooting guard representing in the jersey number 1. Mowad started off her freshman year at Foothill Tech as a player on varsity, but unfortunately injured her leg in the beginning of the season leaving her on crutches for the rest of the season. This year, Mowad came back on the court as a sophomore ready to fill in what she had missed the prior year, leaving this 2024-2025 season with a six-point average.
Mowad motivated herself every day and came into each game reminding herself to stay calm and keep a positive mindset. To Mowad, the most important part of the game is to keep your energy and your teammates’ energy up all the time, she constantly did this throughout her games by “rallying” her teammates up and cheering them on.
The positive mindset the Dragons have is something that Mowad truly admires about her team, no player is ever left on the court feeling left alone. Mowad explains her experience on the Foothill Tech team to be the closest team she’s been on, “we are all very close knit,” which helped her feel supported all throughout her season.
Mowad was 4-years-old when her basketball career took over. She started playing at Ventura Youth Basketball Association (VYBA), then later on started her journey in club basketball on A-Game then to Cal-Storm, while playing on her middle school team at Cabrillo Middle School (Cabrillo).
Basketball is more than just a game to Mowad, the court is her happy place and where she feels at home. She has grown up in a household where her whole family played basketball, this experience has encouraged Mowad to continue with her basketball career throughout the years. She confessed her dad to be her biggest supporter throughout her journey, as he has coached her for most of her life and been a support system for her.
Head Coach, Chuck Ferris has been Mowad’s biggest inspiration throughout her high school career in basketball. Her favorite qualities about him are that he motivates through thick and thin, and that Ferris “does not let our mistakes define us … he gives us chances because he truly believes in us.” His commitment to the team and the amount of time he spends working on everyone on the team rubs off on players and has made a true difference in her career.
Thinking about the future, Mowad wants to continue to play basketball throughout high school, but when going into college Mowad wants her main priority to be school. She plans a future in veterinarian work, which she believes will take up most of her time, but because of her love for the game, Mowad plans to continue with a intramural basketball team when she leaves high school.
