SHS’s girls basketball team has an overall score of 3-1, as the season starts off strong. But having a team is not just about winning and losing. It is about teamwork, sportsmanship and connection with the players and the game.

According to SHS’s girls’ head basketball coach Trish Kruse, it has been an impactful pre-season for the team considering they have been playing teams with higher stats. She feels that having a younger team in the league gives the team an advantage.

“We’re super young and athletic and super quick,” Kruse said. “We have nine juniors and sophomores combined, and then three freshmen on the team.”

Although being young comes with perks, it also comes with its downfalls. Kruse stated that there could be a lack of leadership within the team due to age, and because they aren’t the tallest team in the league and due to their height, it could be harder to rebound the ball.

Varsity junior shooting guard, Sydney Hazelwood, got back in the game recently after recovering from her knee injury that halted her pre-season.

“Because of [my knee injury] I learned to pick up the energy and create positivity,” Hazelwood said. “Overall, it helped me become a better teammate, and I say that’s my role on the team. To help my team I need to start relearning the fundamentals and get back in shape.”

Varsity junior Raquel Thompson, who is a small forward and guard for the team, expresses how everyone on the team looks up to each other.

“I feel like it’s not just one person,” Thompson said. “We as a team look up to each other, it isn’t just up to one person, we don’t have a leader on the team.”

Like every team, each player has their own set of weaknesses they need to improve on. Junior shooting guard Chyanne Hatcher, explains how second guessing herself can mess up a play.

“If I second guess myself, I don’t do my part, and that could affect my team,” she said.

Having high standards for oneself in a team and during a game comes from, not only help from the team, but help from the coaches as well.

“Not only Coach Kruse, but Coach Fisher as well,” Hazelwood said. “They both push the team every day and hold us accountable. [They also] hold us to really high standards.”

Hatcher expressed how Coach Kruse does a good job of disciplining the team and making sure they take responsibility for their actions.

“She doesn’t want us to blame others for what we did, and we have to take accountability for ourselves in a respectful way,” Hatcher said. “She tries to teach us that, so we can build as a team and not hold grudges with each other, because that will affect us as a team.”

Kruse reminds her team each day to play with relentless effort, and if they do not, then they are not playing high enough to their standards.

“RE, relentless effort,” said Kruse. “That’s pretty much our mantra. We just want our kids to play that way all the time. At [one of the last] scrimmage[s], our kids didn’t play with relentless effort, so it didn’t go very well. When you don’t play with relentless effort, you don’t play as successful as a team.”

Each person expressed how their biggest goal for this season, as well as seasons to come, was to win, play with everything they’ve got, and use those skills in the future.

“To win,” said Kruse. “That’s the goal every year. And for the kids to develop good life-long habits while being a part of a team and enjoying [it].”