Varsity Basketball Makes Plans for the Season, Following 67-55 Loss

PHOTO | Morgan Herriott

Junior Gabby Gaither flashes a smile to teammate sophomore Anna Sheedy as her name is called as a starter for the game against Blue Valley Southwest Feb. 5. Storm lost 67-55 to the Timberwolves.

The team is inching closer to some of the larger games of the season, including the Irish Cup game against rivals St Teresa’s Academy as well as Districts. As the season continues to progress, the coaches and players want to work on building together as a team in order to achieve a stronger performance, according to assistant coach Becky Becker.

“When you learn to build and grow together as a team, the basketball skills will just fall together,” Becker said. “Building, growing and talking is what makes us stronger as a team, and that’s what is going to make us stronger in the rest of the season.”

This year, the team’s motto has been “BUILD,” which represents belief, unity, integrity, leadership and determination, according to junior Olivia Shively. Throughout the season, the team has worked on building not only their skills, but their performance as individuals as well as their relationships with each other as they work together towards becoming a stronger team. 

“For me, it represents just getting better every day,” Shively said. “It clearly did something because I feel like I have gotten better since the beginning of the season.”

While the game didn’t end the way the team wanted, the loss proves that the team needs to focus on finishing each game strong and never giving up, according to Shively. As they near the end of the regular season, the team is focused on building their performance for more important games, according to Sheedy. 

“During the rest of the season, I hope we can improve both our individual skills and working better together as a team,” Sheedy said. “I think it’ll be best if we really improve our team defense and communication with each other.”