To say that we’ve come along way throughout the course of the season would be a major understatement. From fall ball in September to February playoffs, we’ve excelled beyond what was expected of us.
At the beginning of our season in November, head coaches in our district ranked all nine teams and their expected outcomes, sort of like an NCAA AP poll. We were projected to finish in fourth, just barely making a playoff spot.
Now, we ended up finishing second in district, while contending for first place with Westlake, one of the most competitive teams in the state. We even managed to split the season series, as we beat Westlake at home after losing to them earlier in the year.
After a successful 2022-23 season, we graduated 13 seniors. Nyla Anderson and I were the only returning Varsity players this year. The majority of our district thought that our team would fall off due to the fact that we would have to rebuild our program from the ground up, but that only made us better.
To become a winning team, we knew that we had to lock into the talent that we knew we had and pair it with unmatched effort. At the very start of the season, we established that with these two traits are paired, we could become unbeatable.
We also established that to be great on the court, you have to be great off of it. Encouragement and effort is a must for us.
I’ve never been on a team that has loved each other this much, we’re all genuinely best friends, and this team means everything to me. We set aside time to hang out with each other at our own free will, and I feel like a lot of teams lack that bond, or there’s cliques within a team that make it divided.
Another thing that we’ve emphasized throughout our winning season is confidence. We don’t allow arrogance on our team, but we do instill confidence in ourselves and others because we all believe in each other.
We trust each others capabilities, which only strengthens us. When someone makes a mistake, we all do. When someone does something great, we’re the first to celebrate it.
We’ve definitely had our rough patches during the season, but what we’ve always done is learned from our mistakes. Mistakes aren’t excusable or dismissed when made, but they are made up for with effort.
Mistakes and lessons led us to where we are now, contending for first place in district and our first playoff win in years. Playoffs start soon, and we’re scheduled to play Vandergrift, the third seed in our bi-district in the first round. I have no doubt that we have the talent and the character to not only beat Vandergrift, but also to make a deep run this year.
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