As fall sports come to a close, student athletes at Richard Montgomery Highschool are making the annual transition to their winter sports seasons. One of the most popular, but demanding winter sports is basketball. In preparation for this year’s girls varsity basketball season, players are shifting their training rituals and increasing conditioning time.

The team began their pre-season training ahead of tryouts, overseen by Coach Micheal Oakes, head of the girls varsity basketball team. Going into the season, the team has one main objective they would like to follow. “I think our biggest goal for this season is we really just want to play all the games,” Coach Oakes said. 

The team also wants to work on utilizing every practice as time for each player to focus on their individual strengths and weaknesses. “Our goal is always to get 1% better every day in practice, every game, if we do those things, we feel like the results are going to take care of themselves,” Coach Oakes said. 

“The thing that makes me the most excited is starting a good team dynamic, getting on the court and working well as a team to get the win,” freshman Corrine Howard said. 

In order to achieve a fluid team dynamic, the players must learn to play as one unit. “We’ve been doing morning workouts from 6-7:15 am every morning for the past two months which is a really good time to put in some work together,” Howard said. 

The team has played in both a summer and fall league season together, so the players already have an idea of how they work together on the court and what they need to improve.   

While prepping for the season is important, balancing schoolwork, now a few weeks into the second semester, can be challenging. “They actually have a study hall for athletes from 2:30 until whenever your practice is so I get some of my work done then but most times I just take late nights to finish work,” Howard said.

The job of a student athlete is not a job everyone can handle. “It just requires a lot of time management skills,” Coach Oakes said. 

With just a short window left before the start of the season, daily practices and weekly games will soon begin. The season will be time consuming and require hard work, but the team feels ready for it. “I’m really just excited and confident for us to be able to finally get out there and play again,” Coach Oakes said.