What a change in the attitude of the girls’ varsity basketball team from two years ago to now. The questions they ask themselves are not “will we make playoffs?” but “how well will we be seeded?” “Will we win this game?” has turned into “how much will we win by?”
In the 2009-2010 season, girls’ varsity basketball had a record of 1-13, making it no surprise that playoffs were not in their minds for the next season. Senior captain Kristen Polan said, “we definitely have more confidence this year; last year playoffs weren’t even in my mind, simply surviving the season was.” Surprisingly, in the 2010-2011 season, the girls finished with a 6-6 record, making them playoff bound. Although they were eliminated one game into the playoffs, the fact that they made playoffs showed great progress.
The saying “play like a champion today” is a saying that the girls’ varsity basketball team has come to live by. Sophomore Brooke Alpert said, “play like a champion means you give 150% every minute you are on the court.” Senior captain Haley Laube said, “it means you leave it all out on the court and in order to become a champion you must play.”
It was a unanimous consensus that their toughest competition this year would be John Glenn. John Glenn was undefeated last year entering the postseason as the number one seed. Although they will be the toughest competition, Coach Mike Polan has faith in the team. He said, “beating John Glenn is definitely a possibility, we just have to play the right defense.” Haley and Junior Sammi Vickers said, “we will be able to beat John Glenn when we’re swaggin’ and ballin’ hard.” Everybody on the team knows that if they work together there will be nothing that they can’t do.
Two young key players this year will be sophomores Brooke Alpert and Lauren Smith. When I asked them if coming into this season they thought they’d be starting on varsity they both said no. Brooke said, “No not at all, I thought I wasn’t very good at basketball and was going to be spending more quality time with Duca (the JV coach).” Lauren, who has proven to be very important defensively so far in the season, said that the main difference from JV to varsity is, “There is a lot more competition and it’s way more serious.” Brooke pointed out that, “JV’s sock game is whack,” referring to the fact that most of the varsity players wear midcalf socks.
Everyone agreed that going into this season there is so much more confidence then last year. Coach Polan said, “If the team jells then everyone is important, even if someone doesn’t get that much playing time they contribute in practice to help the major minute players improve.”
Going into the regular season they have an overall record of 3-1. This is a very good start for the girls being on a three game winning streak. Their first league home game is Tuesday, December 20 at 5:45. Come by and support your girls’ varsity basketball team in what should be a very successful season.