With dedication to training and building team bonds, the varsity girls basketball team continues to persevere throughout the season, despite only having one senior player.
According to senior Brooke Fenchel, even though the team struggles, “we always try our best and never give up.”
Being the only senior on the varsity girls basketball team, Fenchel also has a bigger leadership responsibility than before.
“Being the only senior is an adjustment, but it is also a special role to have as far as leadership goes,” Fenchel said.
Even though Fenchel is the only senior, other players have also stepped up to lead the team.
“Having one senior on the team opens up a lot of opportunities for the other girls to take charge and not just have the seniors play every game,” freshman Keria Fadden said.
The younger team also dedicates a lot of time and energy to training.
“We have a very special team that works extra hard and is trying to make up for the lack of seniors,” Coach Tyler Bui said.
As a result of the lack of seniors, some freshmen get to play in the varsity games.
“I think the freshman has a positive effect overall because it allows them to have experience with more difficult teams at a young age which will be able to help them in the long run,” Fenchel said. “We try to work on bettering the younger classmen so, for years to come, they will be able to be better than we were and help their team more.”
Other players have also noticed the dedication that the freshmen players have been putting in.
“The freshmen are doing really well for being on a varsity sport their first year of high school,” sophomore Alaina Picard said.
Because the freshmen are starting on the varsity team young, players hope that it’ll help them eventually lead to better outcomes when they are upperclassmen.
“I think having a lot of freshmen on varsity will, in the future, make it a really good team because everyone will have experience,” Fadden said.
According to junior Emily Dick, the team always works on trying to “connect better on the court” and just “get better at helping each other in the game. Like getting open, making a screen block, or passing the ball.”
According to Fenchel, “communication is key to basketball.”
“We struggle a bit with that because not all the underclassmen are too comfortable with speaking up, but we always try to work on it,” Fenchel said.
However, Dick said that the team also needs to work on keeping spirits high after losing.
“We definitely have to work on being a team more after we lose,” Dick said, “Some losses can be tough for us depending on what happened and the team it’s against.”
Even though there are some things for the team to work on, they are all friendly to one another.
“The team has good, close connections with the coach. We all get along pretty well,” Fadden said.
According to Dick, a really fun part of the team is “having fun with each other” and “bonding on and off the court, like at our pasta parties.”
“We are definitely growing closer to [each other], growing the small friend groups into bigger ones,” Picard said.