In the time of a pandemic, winter sports fight to stay playing, with girls basketball being one of them. The pandemic has made it extremely different to what they are used to. From wearing masks while they play, to weeks of online basketball, who knows where their season will take them.?

“Despite all the changes we have high expectations for the team and that is not going to change. Good teams will rise to the challenge regardless of the situation,” said Coach Brahler.

The girls have been practicing for months and working extremely hard to maintain the guidelines of this year with basketball so they don’t have to shut down. They put their all into it, even though their season could be put to a halt at any point.

The season so far has been quite different to what they are used to. The masks are a big part of the change.

Freshman Cece Kosecki said, “The masks are very annoying to play with and it does sometimes make it harder to breathe but with our team it feels like we still give it our all and we dont let it affect us too much. It is just harder to communicate on the floor and understand what someone else is saying.”

Most of the girls even feel like they are missing out on their high school basketball experience. Kosecki said, “I do feel like I am missing out on my freshman season, since COVID has made us miss eight games already, I feel as though it’s hard to get any better.”

Senior Sammi Archer also agrees that she is missing out on her senior year. She said, “This senior year is not exactly as I expected it to be.” Although Sammi is bummed out about the season,
she also continued to say, “I know everything is so different but at the same time I know how hard coaches and administrators are trying to make the year the best it can be.”

All the girls are extremely grateful for even having a season. Kosecki said, “I am very grateful that I have coaches and teammates that work hard and stay supportive of each other through this time. I am just appreciative of how determined our coaches are into giving us the best chance to play that we have.”

As for the season it’s hard to say how it will even go. Coach Brahler said, “The hardest part about all these changes is the stopping and restarting of practices. For example we had a good start and great progress and then got shut down for three weeks and had to start back up again.”

All winter sports got postponed for three weeks so the team decided to do practice through zoom. Which may be something you would never think would come out of your mouth. But the girls basketball team does not stop for anything. Those girls worked hard even on zoom to stay in touch with basketball.

Coach Brahler said, “The hardest part about coaching during the pandemic has just been the daily changes and uncertainty of the year. Us coaches just have to be ready to adjust practice plans and games constantly.”

The teams games have already been cancelled 8 times. Kosecki said, “ We constantly are checking hudl just to see if our games get cancelled again or practice is moved.”

Archer said, “I think the year will definitely be interesting but our team has been good with following guidelines and doing everything we can to keep things running smoothly so I believe we will have a good year.”

Coach Brahler added on and said, “I would love to give the players an opportunity to keep this year working by following the CDC, Local Health Departments, PIAA/WPIAL and the school District.”

It’s great to see a team so passionate about basketball and willing to stick together not only as teammates but as friends and work through this crazy season together and make the best of it.

Winter sports deserve their season in a time like this. Sports are a great outlet for players just to have fun and escape the world.