Girls Basketball’s Kelsey Mersman thrives after pull up
It is hard being an underclassmen on a varsity basketball team, it is even harder when you come in half way through the season. Through all of the changes, sophomore Kelsey Mersman has overcome this challenge and thrived in it.
Kelsey Mersman has been playing with the Hamilton Hawkeyes Varsity and JV Girls Basketball teams this winter. She started the season playing on JV, then the Varsity team started having some tough injuries. On Friday, January 25, 2024 against Fruitport she finally got pulled up to Varsity, and now is playing with them for the rest of their season. The Varsity Coach, Coach Malloch said, “Kelsey has been a great addition to our team. So far this year she has earned her spot on the Varsity squad, and we are really grateful to have her”. What does this mean for Kelsey Mersman?
Kelsey has been on JV for the last year and a half. She has earned the respect of her Coach, Coach Ayres, and her teammates on JV. When I asked Coach Ayres how Kelsey has been doing up on Varsity she said, “Kelsey has added her grit and effort to the Varsity team that was needed. She’s stepped into a real important role which is providing a break for the starters without the level of intensity dropping on the court.” I asked Coach Malloch how her game has improved from being on Varsity and she said, “Kelsey has always been really athletic, and really aggressive which makes her a great rebounder and defender. I think the surprise of the season is she immediately joined the game and hit two 3s in one game and hit a 3 in the next game. We were like wow, not like we thought that she couldn’t shoot before, but she has been a great shooter and an offensive threat as well. She definitely is a very well rounded player”
Kelsey is a very confident person as it is but when she has the support of her teammates, she can go far. She said that her, “Teammates around me, give me encouragement, and let me know that it’s ok to fail, but they are excited when I succeed.” One of her teammates, Senior Bethany Behnke, said that, “She just jumped into the mix and was a perfect match from the beginning.” When I asked one of her other teammates, Junior Kaitlyn Geurink, what she thought about how Kelsey is blending with the team she said, “ I think that she is blending great, we all like her, and all of us get along with her.” Kelsey definitely has the trust from her teammates to do good in all of the situations that she is put in.
“I was excited for the opportunity because it meant that I could get better and play with people that are at a more advanced skill level, meaning that I could get better in my own talent,” Kelsey said when I asked her about how she feels being pulled up. Kelsey is a very determined person, who puts a lot of time into things to get better at them. When I asked Coach Malloch how she thinks she is blending with the team, she said, “Kelsey is really positive, she’s an encourager, she’s a hard worker, I think that people respect her, because of how hard she works everyday, and also she just makes everyone’s day better, because she is happy and fun”.
I asked Kelsey how she thinks that her mental game has grown since being on Varsity, she said, “I think that it has grown a lot because, coach expects more out of me and that helps me prepare more mentally, and being more tough, and determined.”
Kelsey Mersman has earned her spot, she is very positive, a hard worker, and her teammates see and appreciate it. Her level of play has increased and her mental game has done the same. The amount of pressure of being a Varsity athlete has not brought her down, if anything it has helped her thrive. Kelsey always will be the same bubbly, fun, happy, encouraging, positive person on and off the court. And like Coach Ayres said, “Go Kelsey”.