Tuesday December 9th the girls basketball teams started out their season playing the Hazel Park Vikings. The JV team defeated the Vikings 25-7. The Varsity team lost a tough one with a score of 23-47. To prepare for their seasons both teams have practice everyday where they learn plays, improve fundamentals, and develop new skills. With new developments and additions to the program the teams have to work a little extra hard to make sure to keep up on and off the court.

This year there is a new JV coach, Coach Tatum. This is her first year coaching and she is accompanied by her sister Coach Mckenzie. I asked Lilly Dodson how she thinks the season is going so far and she said, “I think the game went really well with the win but I think we still need to work on listening to the coaches, running the offense and practicing defense at practice.” When we asked sophomore Camilia Fleury about what worked well at their game and what they still needed to improve on she said, “What worked well was regrouping and resetting the plays and what we need to work on is definitely talking on the court.” We hope the rest of their season runs smoothly and they continue to win their games!

The Varsity team is coached by Coach Griffin. They also have a new assistant coach this year Coach Genereau. With many new additions and changes to the girls basketball program this year we asked Coach Griffin what the good and bad changes were with the team this year. She told us, “After graduating six seniors, we are a much younger team, which has come with challenges but also growth opportunities. A lot of our players are getting used to a faster pace and style of play that they haven’t really experienced before. However, because most of them have already been in the program, they understand the expectations, standards, and the culture we’ve established. With that, we’ve been able to spend less time on fundamental expectations and more time focusing on basketball development, which has been a major positive.” Besides new coaches and new players on the team, Coach Griffin welcomed a baby girl to her family a couple weeks into the start of the season. We asked her how her preparation has changed for this season with having a newborn baby. She said, “This season definitely required more planning than usual. With a baby on the way, I had to be more intentional and organized because I didn’t always know when I’d be able to be around. I leaned a lot on my assistant coach and JV coach to handle things I would normally take care of myself. Their support was huge, and it really showed how important it is to trust your staff and work together.” Showing how dedicated she really is to the team, Coach Griffin even brings her baby with her to practices when needed. Seeing how committed the coach is lets the players learn a lot from her. One lesson Coach Griffin hopes the girls take away from the season is, “the importance of competing at their fullest and never giving up on themselves or their teammates- both on and off the court. I want them to understand that effort, resilience, and belief in one another are just as important as wins and losses, and that those qualities will serve them beyond basketball.” With a tough loss in their first game, we asked junior Sadie Hall what the biggest lesson the team could take away from their first game. She told us, “ The first game taught us that we should never give up and always continue to push ourselves.” We also asked Sadie what aspects came easiest to her and what she wants to focus on during games. She told us, “Things that come easiest to me are pushing myself and cheering on my teammates. I want to focus on improving on dribbling and stuff in the paint.” We also talked to junior Jamie Coleman about the start of the season. She said the thing that excites her most is, “working hard with a fresh new team this year to acquire as many wins as we can.” Basketball can also mean more than just a game to people too. Jamie told us that through the game, “Basketball has taught me a significant amount of discipline and focus” that can be used on and off the court.

We wish the girls good luck with the rest of their season and hope they continue to learn and grow. Both the JV and Varsity teams play at home on Friday, December 19th against New Haven. The JV game starts at 4:30pm and the Varsity game is at 6pm. We hope to see you there!