Victories Boost Girls Basketball Team Confidence

Since the kick off of the season, the girls’ basketball team has won rival schools including Slinger, for the first time in five years, scoring 76-68 on Dec. 1.

This win has been valued as a reward amongst team players for their efforts despite the uncertainties and their dedication to keep moving forward.

Senior Olivia Otto said, “That win meant so much to me because we have been working so hard as an entire program to become successful and that win meant so much just because of the group of girls we had when accomplishing that success.”

Although this win boosted morale on the team, it was not seen as a determinant of the season, but more so a reason to keep playing and work harder to keep going strong.

“As a team we worked and worked to prepare for this game,” sophomore Kacy Kratz said. “[We] just need to keep looking forward to who we play next and we [cannot] let that game determine our season.”

Given there is a lot more to the season, victory is not always in the picture. The team was experiencing an undefeated season up to the hit from West Bend West on Dec. 8 due to a loss of key players according to head coach Vinny Daniels.

“We were missing one of our [key] kids that night, which made things a lot more difficult than it would’ve been in a normal situation,” Daniels said. “I think the kids learned very quickly that we just don’t [accept not giving] each other all the effort we can give.”

The challenges on the court and behind the scenes, with having to play with masks and missing players due to getting quarantined, motivate the team to work harder and make progress.

Junior Skylar Votaw said, “We need to keep our energy up even after a really good win.”

Through this perspective of going one game at a time and keeping up the energy and looking at the rest of the season the team and coach Daniels set their goals but still maintain focus on the present.

“I think that making sure that we do the best we possibly can, keep growing together, don’t take a win against Slinger as something that defines our season [but] use it as something to [spring towards] us to bigger and better things down the road,” Daniels said.