By: Sam Van Huis
Hamilton Girls Basketball has done very well in their endeavors the past few years, some wonder how it’s done with such a small team. Well, I was one of the fans wondering the same thing, So I researched it, spoiler it’s cooler than some may think!
The Girl’s Basketball team is made up of nine different players. From a viewer’s perspective, I wondered just as much as some people as to how they manage to stay going competing with schools with way bigger teams and winning their games and if not winning putting up a huge fight.
Coming from Senior Bethany Behnke “We all have to recognize each other’s strengths and weaknesses and utilize those to the best of our abilities since we don’t have a large team like most other schools.”
This comes with no surprise as a team is meant to be there for you and in fact, you don’t play the games on your own. In Basketball it’s important with a small team to stay close-knit like the Girls on our basketball team. It allows the most efficient use of energy and lets the game go on longer without players getting so tired as the game progresses.
Coach Jacquelyn Malloch says “Having clear strategy for substitutions and timeouts is important with a small team. We want to make sure we give players rest when they need it so we don’t run out of gas in the 4th quarter.”
With players knowing that they can get the help and understanding as to what they need to play the game the best it’s important to put the players in the mindset that still things may get hard. It has to be the norm for players to realize going into the season that it’s gonna be more difficult as the team has been smaller not just this year but in years past as well.
Freshman players have played a key role in this year’s team. It was a big deal that more and more younger players are hitting varsity and it’s not just because they are needed, it’s because they were wanted because they are playing better than ever before. The rise in freshman players becoming varsity much sooner than in years past is a great sign of growth for high school sports and it goes to show we are working on being better and better in every aspect of high school sports and training.
In all, it really does take a team to win the games and even if they don’t win it takes a team to work together and put combined efforts into every game they play to get the results we are all looking for!