During this year’s girls’ varsity basketball pre-season, the coaches have a goal to make the sport fun for the players and help build relationships. To do this, the coaches are trying to keep the stress levels low while continuing to help the players improve. By implementing these new practices, the coaches are hoping to improve the players’ performance and on top of that, their sportsmanship.

“Something our whole team needs to work together [on] is executing what our coaches are telling us to do,” junior varsity shooting guard Tianna Chambers said.

The team knows they need to work on their trust within each other, since the sport is based on major teamwork. The players are working hard to be part of the team and it pushes them to have more confidence in their gameplay.

“The hardest part of preseason was finding a team-wide connection to get us through the hard losses,” senior varsity center forward Julia Leech said.

For the players, the toughest part of the preseason could span from getting everyone back in the swing of things to the drills during practice. But the best part could easily be everyone showing how they got to improve over the summer or showing everyone how they play if they’re new to the team. For a lot of new players, a big part of team sports can be proving your worth to the team, especially if you qualify to be in varsity.

“We want to see what kind of ball handling skills they have,” assistant varsity coach Brittany Fadeyi said.

The returning players are put in drills to practice what they are already efficient in and what aligns with the positions they have already played in. The players practice for four nights a week in a great variety of ways. They practice in the weight room, five on five games, on their dribbling, their shooting, and more. The team and the coaches are finding what is best for them personally, as well as generally for their team. 

“I would say there [are] definitely some drills that come easier to me just because I have been doing them for a while,” Chambers said.

The players are pushed hard every day in the pre-season camp to get them in the best shape possible for tryouts and for the upcoming season.

For many of the players who have been doing basketball for the majority of their life, this isn’t anything new and they will get to do something that they have enjoyed for such a long time. But even growing up doing basketball, some players still need to learn the teamwork of it. There is a lot to be learned whether you are new to a sport or not. 

“I have been playing basketball since I was 5 years old. About 13 years,” Leech said.