On Friday, December 6th, 2024, the girls’ varsity basketball team won against the Warren Blue Devils. The match was not only a celebration of the hard work of the girls’ varsity team, but also an opportunity to improve teamwork, test important strategies, and discover areas of improvement.
The Cats established a powerful lead, scoring 31 consecutive points in the first half of the game. “We are trying to just improve every day from where we were the previous day,” Head Coach Greg Pedersen said. “So there’s a lot of focus on just getting better.”
The Cats maintained this momentum in the second half of the game, with the score reaching 45-3 in the third quarter and 54-9 to close out the match and win against Warren. “We have an upcoming game against the number two team in the state, Waubonsie Valley,” Pedersen stated. “So we tried to play against Warren like they were Waubonsie Valley. We tried to use some of the defenses we’re going to use tomorrow and tried to move the ball like we’re going to move it tomorrow.”
Despite their victory, the Cats still have opportunities to grow and develop each individual player, as well as the team as a whole. They attribute their victory to plenty of practice and discipline. “We work out about every other day trying to get stronger faster, and we shoot a lot because we’ve had some early season shooting struggles,” Pedersen said. “We shoot a lot of free throws, because free throws are one of the most important things for us, especially against really good teams. And then we work on a lot of our concepts about offense and defense.”
However, it is not all work and no play for the Cats. They maintain a strong sense of teamwork and high morale through various activities. “They’re usually very coordinated, and they do a good job with all that stuff,” Pedersen states. “[They] make sure that they have gear that matches, they host pasta parties, and volunteer at the local Feed My Starving Children on Monday. They like hanging out together, so we try and give them opportunities to hang out together that they might otherwise not have.”
The Wildcats look forward to performing their best against Waubonsie Valley on Monday, Dec 9, and Stevenson on Wednesday, Dec 11.
