It’s a Great Day to Be a Baller

This year’s JV girls’ basketball team is pleading for help after injuries leave them scraping by with just enough players to be on the court.

Vanyssa Haug, Editor

The Horizon Honors 2016-2017 JV girls’ basketball began their season with seven girls, but unfortunately for the team, several girls got injured, leaving them with five players. The JV team was not originally big in numbers but has always played hard. However, these injuries have caused the remaining five players to play entire games without breaks as there are no alternates. Despite the season being already underway, the coaches are asking secondary students to join the team. Nate Agostini, the Horizon Honors Athletic Director and head coach for the girls’ basketball team, shared his views on this season’s difficulties.

The Horizon Sun: What were your thoughts going into the season this year?

Agostini: We knew that we were gonna have a lot of players that were new to the game, and so our thought going into the season was to create an environment where the kids would have a good time, where they would have fun, where they would get better, and just have a great experience in general.

The Horizon Sun: If you don’t get more players, what will that mean for the JV team?

Agostini: We’re getting more players, so I’m not concerned at this point. We’ve had a few more kids sign up, so we’ve got the numbers right now and we’re holding strong, and it’s our intent to see it all the way through to the end and I am extremely confident that that will happen.

The Horizon Sun: What would that do to the girls’ team as a whole?

Agostini: We would have continued with a JV team with small numbers. We would have continued with a JV team, we would have just only had six or seven players for each game, which means all of the girls would have played a lot of minutes, but now that we’ve got more kids out, we can get them some rest.

The Horizon Sun: Why do you think that fewer girls have been trying out for basketball in recent years?

Agostini: I don’t know. I think this year we’ve got 14 girls for both JV and varsity, I think that’s what we had last year. I’ve been the coach for 13 years; I don’t think I’ve ever had more than 16 girls. So it’s not that the numbers are smaller – the numbers are where they are ‒ it’s just that with an injury or two here and there, these are things that we didn’t anticipate.

The Horizon Sun: Do you have anything to say to those considering joining the team?

Agostini: Come on and try out, it’s fun. We’ve got nothing but a lot of playing time to give to people and all we’re looking for is willingness to learn, good attitudes, and somebody that wants to have fun.

These girls love the game, but their season may not be able to continue without more players. Even if you have never played basketball before, come join, play ball, and make new friends. There have recently been a few additions to the team, bringing JV’s total up to eight, but there’s always more room for anyone willing to work and play hard.