As fall sports fade and the air has gotten more chilly. Making the gym doors open and welcoming both girls and boys basketball players.
Basketball is a sport that incorporates shooting, being versatile in several areas, and teamwork. As the timer decreases each team and player make quick, coordinated or unexpected moves revering the crowd. Each player must contribute to offense and defense.
Jamarcus Gress, a junior JV basketball player, just came back from an injury from last year’s football, disabling him from basketball. Now that Gress has come back he’s noticed many things that one year of not playing basketball has done to him making him want to be a better player and teammate.
“I feel pretty good coming back to basketball from my injury,” Geese said. “I’m glad to be back, glad to be back with the team, my friends and on the court, it’s nice and fun. After recovering from my injury I don’t feel as quick as I used to be. I don’t come off as quick because of my knee, so I can’t run as fast as I would like. PT defendly helped, I can jump higher and I got to work on my shooting since I couldn’t run. I play basketball because it’s calming for me, I get to relax, it’s fun and I get to be with the team.”
On the varsity side of boys basketball Shawn McConnell, a senior, has incorporated basketball into his free time due to the community and helping him relax. McConnell has been playing on this team for four years now.
“Basketball has been something I’ve always done my whole life. Basketball helps you build toughness and character as an individual,” McConnell said. “You learn to fight diversity and become a better human being.As a player I want to force myself to be more aggressive and go up to the basket more aggressively, and be tougher down low. I love having a new head coach, we’ve had four head coaches during my time here. I really like him, he’s really cool so far, he’s always talking to us telling us what we need to do and he seems very passionate.”
Landri Schaffer, a senior girls basketball varsity player, has always played basketball both in school and out of school, and is now committed to Pitt State.
“I play basketball because I love it,” Schaffer said “I play to win. I’m a very competitive person and basketball is a very competitive and tough sport that’s why I play it. I definitely want to get better in my defense, you can always get better at defense. I want to also get better with my shots, I’ve been working a lot on that. Basketball has 100 percent helped me as a person. I’ll say I’m a shy person, and I think basketball helps you with connections. I mean you make a lot of connections through it with AAU and high school and I just think it’s helped me a lot with my communication with people and getting to know people.”
Addisen Ratley, a senior varsity girls basketball player, has been playing basketball for four years for the school and several out of the school.
“Basketball has been something I’ve loved to do since I was little and I’ve always dreamed of getting to the next level,” Ratley said. “It’s just something I’ve always done. I definitely want to work on being a better ball handler and getting my outside shots better cause the college line is farther out, I’m getting better with my three pointers. Basketball has helped me be a better person because I feel like I’ve become more outgoing. And it has helped me more with having good team chemistry with my teammates. It helps me with work settings and even in the future, and overall become a better person. It helps build character and problem solving. I am planning to do basketball in college as well.”
