Rebounding from Mistakes

This year’s girls basketball team has made some outstanding improvements. They started off the season a little rough, but they always kept their heads up. Currently they are 2-4 for the season. Coach Davis mentioned that there are several inexperienced players who are adapting to the varsity level. The age difference is also an issue, as well as injuries to our players. The girls are continuing to learn and grow every single practice, even though it is a hard process.

Presently the girls for JV and varsity are working on their confidence level, and overall just every aspect of the game. Coach Jensen mentioned that their main issue for the season is that their rebounding is a little suspect. They need to become more consistent, because it has cost them a game before, and it’s something we can’t let happen. He said that was an easy mistake that can be corrected. For the varsity girls, Coach Davis mentioned that the girls’ shooting, which has already improved tremendously from the beginning of the season, can still be improved as they gain more confidence.

Both of the coaches said there has been a lot of improvement from summer open gyms to now. The coaches said that they both can’t pinpoint one specific player that has improved the most; they have all improved exceedingly. They all work very hard at practice, their skills are getting better, and their decisions as a team are so much better.

Throughout the year the underclassmen look up to the seniors for varsity and the sophomores for JV to try to improve. Coach Jensen mentioned that his leaders for the junior varsity are very difficult to pick out because four out of the six sophomores play varsity time, so they are only getting very little playing time for JV. They are only allowed to play two quarters. That leaves Abbie Sullens and Alivia Clark as their only leaders for the freshman to look up to for JV. But Coach Jensen mentioned that as a freshman, Katie Lindsey has already started to pick up some of the leadership features because she is the point guard and that part of the obligations for that position is to be someone that the rest of the team can look up to. She’s learning through that process. It is very difficult as a younger player to gain the confidence and build up the trusting of your team to be that person that people can look up to, especially as a freshman.

For varsity, things change a lot. It is more competitive and you have to work a lot harder for playing time. Coach Davis said that his leaders are his three seniors, which are Kylie Mann, Callista Francis, and Mattie Whitworth. Sadly, Mattie is still out from her ACL surgery, but they are hopefully getting her back very soon. All of the underclassmen, including JV, look up to these girls as role models. Coach said that they look at those girls to be good, strong leaders for this team, and to set the tone for the practices. They’ve been through all the ropes, so they know what it’s like.

The coaches brought up that the players are a really great group of kids. Davis and Jensen really  enjoy being coaches and love seeing team members continuously improve throughout the year.