As the winter sports season begins, the girls basketball teams have their eyes set on another successful season.
Unlike last season, the program is fortunately able to have 3 levels this year, Freshman, JV, and Varsity. An influx of freshmen came out to play this year which had not been the case for the past two years.
Returning coaches Shawn Steck and Randy Ricci continue to coach the Varsity and JV teams with new coach Mark Billingsley as the Freshman coach.
The teams are now in a new division which means harder teams to play but also chances to get better.
“The division we’re in now has a lot of harder teams,” said returning sophomore JV player Sophie Cysewski. “But every game has been a good opportunity for us to learn from and become stronger playing together as a team.”
The teams had their first game on Nov. 20 against Oakmont high school of Roseville, CA.
For the varsity team, things are a bit different than last year. With senior players gone the remaining players of the team have had to take on the responsibility of helping out the new players.
“The goals for this season is to improve on our skills before every game, beat El Camino, and make it to playoffs,” said senior Cali Britton.
This year’s varsity team has four underclassmen. They have two freshmen, Hailee Hackett and Abby O’Brien and two sophomores, Calie Thielen and Katie Hardwicke. All of the players have formed an incredible bond.
“I will miss this team so incredibly much,” said Britton. “We have freshman to seniors on the team and there’s not one girl on the team that I don’t love to death.”
The team has 13 players this year and stand at three wins and five losses.
The jv and freshman also have a roster of about 13 players with less success than the varsity team but hope to get better as the season progresses
Each team plays six days a week whether it’s games, practices or tournaments, and practices last for a little more than two hours.
The girls lost their latest game against El Dorado high school of Roseville, CA 51-25, and hope to come out on top at their next game against Elk Grove high school.
The varsity team gets the opportunity to play at the Golden 1 Center for the second year in a row on Dec. 22 at 6 p.m.