By Juliana Yao, Staff Reporter
The Junior Varsity and freshman girls’ basketball teams had impressive seasons, ending with records of 16-2 and 13-1 respectively. These achievements helped prepare the athletes to possibly play for varsity in the future.
The two teams have several different reasons for their successful seasons, but both have a commonality in the girls’ characters.
“This year’s team is just a great group of kids,” said Victoria Smick, coach of the JV team. “They work hard and come in everyday wanting to get better. And they really leave everything at practice and during the game.”
In addition, the JV team’s friendship off court drives their teamwork in games, improving plays, offense and defense. Similarly, the freshman team’s chemistry is a factor to their success, but according to coach James Moran, the experience is slightly different.
“Just from the ninth-grade experience, having them come from different middle schools — a variety of places — and come in as a team and support each other is really unique.” Moran said.
The talent shown by the JV and freshman teams raises the question of moving up to varsity. For one, Smick is confident in the JV team’s ability to compete at the varsity level. The girls believe that there are still areas to improve through more training, but their sentiment is similar.
“I think that our JV team is super good and every person on the team has the possibility to be on varsity,” said freshman Ruth Lanouette, a JV athlete. “The skill is definitely there.”
Yet, some freshman athletes decide to play other sports, or stop playing basketball. While this route is popular, Moran thinks otherwise this season.
“The team that I have this year definitely has talent that can compete at the next level,” said Moran. “So I look forward to watching them grow as basketball players.”
Both Smick’s and Moran’s confidence in their athletes is partially due to the role they play to prepare them for varsity. Many of the athletes have improved over the course of the season due to their efforts and encouragement from the coaches. But their trust is also attributed to the players themselves.
“They (the athletes) are just great kids, which is any coach’s dream,” Smick said. “Honestly you want kids that are going to want to get better, that you know want to push each other. I think all of them represent that and I’m just really proud of each and every one of them.”
Juliana Yao can be reached at [email protected].
