The last shot

Girls’ basketball team finishes out season in playoffs

Kaly+Banks+controls+the+ball+in+a+late+season

Katie Allen

Kaly Banks controls the ball in a late season

According to Japanese author Ryunosuke Satoro“Individually we are one drop, but together, we are an ocean.” . One might have experienced a close bond over a sport with a group of people, in this case students who play on the girls varsity basketball team. Many of the girls on the team were returning players, however some were new, and some had come up to play from one of the younger teams. Throughout the season the girls learned more about each other as they improved their basketball skills. They especially enjoyed long bus rides which were useful for pre-game discussions, learning new details about their teammates, and listening to music to get their excitement up for the game they were headed to.

Even during the tough times where some teammates felt a little down or weren’t as confident as usual, they were there for eachother and worked as a team to bring back the positivity and continue on with their game. Eighth grader, Haley Affolter said, “Sometimes, during other games we would be down on ourselves but we always managed to pick ourselves back up.”

The last game of the 2016-17 season was Thursday, March 2nd, for the Bomber girls varsity basketball team. They lost their playoff game by only a sliver of points to Kenyon-Wanamingo. “I think the playoff game went great, we had a scorer’s mentality and knocked down a lot of shots. We only lost by nine points, and the other two games we’ve played against Kenyon weren’t that close.” says Bella Davisson, an 8th grader who was asked to start dressing for varsity mid-season. There were some strong emotions felt between the team before, during, and after the away game. Girls were psyched for their playoff game but were also nervous knowing that it very well could be the last game of the season. Davisson explained that “the intensity felt a lot different in this game. It was a close game and we knew if we lost it, we were done,” one can imagine the anxious state they were in at forceful moments during the game. While Davisson was jittery before the game, Junior Kaly Banks looked at it another way. You can forget about everything that happened in other games. Banks, who was a starter in the playoff game, said “playoff games you start over, it’s like a brand new season, which is nice.”

Even though this year’s seniors will no longer be playing with the rest of

it “to see how many girls actually come out, ‘cause a lot of girls are on the fence right now, and to see how well we improve, like excited to see the improvement,”

The girls believe they had a wonderful season full of fun, improvement, and most important of all, basketball. This team is unique in that they work hard together on and off the court, their friendship goes beyond basketball and that is one of their many strengths. They loved the memories and can’t wait for what next year’s season brings!