As the sounds of basketballs hitting the gym floor echoes, students and coaches prepare for a new season and tryouts for the girls basketball team.
With the upcoming basketball season arriving quickly, past players and students looking to join the team have started conditioning to prepare for tryouts. Junior Mic’kayja Tatum, a past player, expresses the difficulty new players might experience while playing girls basketball this season.
“I think the most difficult part is definitely staying committed,” Tatum said. “There will be hard days where we lose or you just don’t feel like going to practice and those are the days that you have to work twice as hard.”
Tatum discusses how she prepares for tryouts even in difficult times like these, in hopes that other girls looking to tryout for the team will do the same.
“To prepare for tryouts, I just try to prepare myself mentally and physically,” Tatum said. “Physically, I try to go to the gym a while ahead to get my stamina back to where it needs to be and just be prepared to be very sore.”
Tatum gives realistic advice to those who are interested in trying out for girls basketball.
“You have to be resilient and you have to be willing to work hard,” Tatum said.
Girls basketball coach Kenya Grissett discusses how things are going to be this year at tryouts and in future practices due to COVID-19.
“It won’t be much different than previous tryouts,” Grissett said. “Once December 7th hits, we are allowed to have a regular practice but we will implement masks on the sideline, bringing your own hydration supply, plus reconfiguring space in the locker room.”
Grissett discusses the uncertainty of knowing who is going to try out for this basketball season due to the location of the school.
“Being in a military town, it’s hard to know who you will see from year to year,” Grissett said.
Grissett expresses how the upcoming girls basketball season will be very different from other past seasons, due to the pandemic’s new guidelines and regulations for all sports.
“The season is already different because it is starting later, and it is shorter,” Grissett said. “We will not be able to play some of the teams outside of our conference that we usually compete against.”
Even though things may be different this season and there are new restrictions, Grissett is prepared to coach the girls basketball team this season regardless of what might be different this year.
“I have a great group of coaches around me,” Grissett said. “If we need to pull a few players aside and give them additional pointers on how to grasp a skill set, we work well together to pull groups and work on multiple skill development drills at one time at varying levels.”
Grissett shares her excitement about the future season and discusses how she loves the game.
“You may have heard me say before that I am always excited to take the floor and play basketball,” Grissett said. “As a spectator, coach, or player, I love being around the game.”
