The girls’ basketball team was not particularly triumphant last season, ending with a 7-13 record; but the girls are ready for a fresh start and are taking the court with a positive outlook on the possibilities for this upcoming season.
“This year’s motto is ‘New Beginnings,’” head coach, Ed Huydic said in a recent interview.
This past season, the team did not qualify for states, ending a 28 year streak that the girls’ basketball team had previously maintained. Senior captain, Natasja George’14 said the reasoning behind this might have been the loss of some key players and the belief that they never reached their full potential as a team.
According to George, the girls have already begun preparing for the season by participating in a fall league, which involved weekly scrimmages against other FCIAC teams. Additionally, they have held open gym and clinics throughout the fall and plan on scrimmaging against several more teams in the next week or so.
The team has several goals that it hopes to achieve this year, but Huydic and George agree that the objective above all others is to qualify for states. With two star players having graduated, player Maggie Fair’15 believes that in order to achieve this goal, it is important that every player give it their all and perform to full potential because there are no longer dominant players to rely on.
“This season we just need to start over and play basketball. We need to focus more and come together as a team,”Fair said.
Focus and determination are some words that George used to describe the team this year; and with this focus and determination, the girls have been learning new defensive and offensive plays, which according to George have been working well in scrimmages and game like situations.
“The team is working on chemistry and skill sets as most of the players lack varsity experience,” Huydic said.
Freshman player, Olivia Troy’17 said being one of the only freshman on the team can be intimidating at times, but for the most part thinks the team is looking pretty good. “We just want to have a good season, so we are doing everything we can to prepare,” Troy said.
Huydic described the team’s attitude and work ethic as exemplary, and George already sees much more team affinity than she did last year. “You’d be surprised how much it actually affects the teams performance.”
With their sneakers squeaking against the gym floor and heads held high, the girls’ basketball team hopes to dribble and shoot their way through a successful season.
“I think we’re viewed as somewhat of the underdogs coming into this season, but I’m confident we’ll prove ourselves to be much better than that,” George said.
