On November 3rd, 2020 the Lady Spartans basketball team played a good game against SHMS, (Shawnee Heights Middle School). We all should be proud of ourselves.
After our 20 minute warm-up the game started. This was our first home-game of the season. The whole first quarter SHMS was in the lead. In the end of the first quarter the Jr. Lady’s Spartans basketball team was behind SHMS by 4. They lead 0 to 4. The only score that we know of is at the beginning.

The rest of the game I could feel the sweat almost pouring off of my face. I could hear the cheerleaders being as loud as they could and the whistles screeching in the players ears. It seemed like every play was going so fast. I could see the jersey’s of my teammates and the other team. Their red jerseys stood out from our white jerseys. The game seemed to only last twenty minutes. By the end of the game EMS had lost by 33 points. With sweat dripping down all of our faces some had gone into the locker room to get ready to leave as soon as the B team game was over.

It is now November 16th, 2020. All the Lady Spartans are quarantined right now due to Covid-19. Someone on our team has tested positive and all of us have been at home waiting eagerly to start the season up again. We have still gotten in a google meet and watched the 8th grade game. We reviewed what could be improved and some things that we need to work on. It has been a week since we first started to quarantine. It is a rough time for at least most of the players. Some have gotten tested and I am waiting to find out if one of my friends is positive for Covid.

Here are some in-game experiences. I had a few questions for my Team-mate and my coach.
Q: What were the things running through your head when we started the game?
A: Well to be honest the main thing running through my head was holy cow, I was very nervous to say the least and if I’m being honest I didn’t get through the thought that I was actually there, I just had to set that thought aside which was hard.
Q: How did you get through the game with what energy you had?
A: I guess the will to keep pushing you can’t get anywhere without it
Here are some Questions I had for our coach:
Q: Have you resolved any issues that you think might have happened during that game?
A: I think we have resolved some of the issues that happened during the game. Our biggest issue I would say was boxing out and rebounding and we’ve made sure to hold you accountable to getting better at that during practice. Another problem is turnovers and we are still working towards getting better at that, but that will come with experience and comfort being on the court.
Q: When did you decide who you wanted to put in to play?
A: I decided who I wanted to play the day before the game when I found out we would be missing someone due to quarantine. That kind of changed things up a bit. During the game just whoever needed a break would come out or if I needed to talk to a player about something specific without using a timeout I subbed them out then as well.
Q: How could you tell who was truly playing hard and wanted to be on the court?
A: I can tell if people are playing hard based on the energy they give me in the game. If a student athlete wants to be on the court they go full speed no matter their confidence level. They also do what I ask of them when I send them in the game. If they don’t do what I ask, they generally don’t want to be on the court very badly because I never ask someone to do something they aren’t capable of.

The team played really hard that day but we still lost. Next time we play we will come back an be better.