Dec. 2 2011 23

Locked andLoadedGirls’ Basketball Preview

2011

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N ow that the fall season has come to a close, winter athletes have gotten back into shape and are ready to com-pete in a new season. For the girls’

basketball team, this meant it was time for some serious conditioning.

Conditioning began in the middle of October and continued until buffer week. During condi-tioning the girls ran a series of different drills to improve their running and jumping abilities.

“We went in the gym to do sprints and jumping drills during conditioning,” sophomore Maddie Routhier said.

When buffer week arrived, girls who wanted to be on the team were left to prepare themselves for tryouts, but with the leadership of the upper classmen the girls decided to meet and run together.

“The seniors lead a conditioning group and we just ran on the track,” junior Sydeny Tilson said.

That week the girls all worked together so they were all ready for tryouts.

“We all ran as a team [during buffer week] and [Routhier] and I went to the Y to shoot and

run together,” sophomore Ryann Horton said.On Nov. 14 girls’ basketball tryouts began. A

total of 29 girls tried out for the team. Head coach Max Hamblin was impressed with the talent the girls displayed at tryouts.

“We are too deep in most positions,” Ham-blin said. “There is a lot of competition for each position.”

With this amount of talent on the team, Ham-blin is looking forward to quite a season.

“We have five letter winners returning and a good group coming in,” Hamblin said. “It is a pretty talented group.”

Upperclassmen including seniors Audrey Meisch, Kelsey Dick, Hanna Larsen, Katy Larsen and junior Sydney Tilson are key returning play-ers who have become leaders and role models to underclassmen.

“I feel like there are many key players this season,” freshman Riley Messina said. “Audrey Meisch is an extremely good player. She is one of the seniors that I really look up to.”

The freshman class has had much experi-ence of working together because of their past together. Throughout middle school, the girls’

basketball players made it through both seventh and eighth grade as an undefeated team.

“It is really exciting being a freshman and hopefully continuing our great record,” Messina said. “Being undefeated is an awesome ac-complishment for us freshmen and I am looking forward to keeping our streak going.”

This group of girls has become a strong team and a group of close friends.

“My goals for this season are to continue our streak of being undefeated, play hard, and stay close,” Messina said. “I have grown up with this freshman team all the way from elementary. We know each others strengths and weaknesses, how to play together, and lastly how to come together as a family.”

One of these freshman girls, Jaylyn Agnew, made it on the varsity team.

“It’s really exciting that Jaylyn Agnew is going to be playing varsity as a freshman,” Messina said. “Even though she is young, she is very expe-rienced and seems to fit right into the team.”

caleMINEAR