As the girls’ basketball season approaches, we take a look inside on how they’re feeling and their thoughts as tryouts have passed and the team is determined. The girls prepare to turn around from last year’s 6-17 season. 

The team loses seniors Grace VanDenstorm and Zakiah Williams from last season. But most major contributors return, so there’s nowhere the team can go but up. Mr. Gwozdz is returning as head coach. “Preparations happen every day, one practice at a time,” he said. Junior guard Ryann Lambert is hoping for a 7-5 record this season.

Teammate and fellow junior Danniah Hollingsworth is a returning forward to the program. She plans to “calm down and not be as aggressive, shoot more, and box out.”

She hopes not to play as scrappy as before and be more balanced. Ryann Lambert stated, “Hopefully I average at least 12 points per game,” hoping to do well on the offensive side of things.

Coach Gwozdz expressed how goals haven’t changed from the previous year. “Goals are always pretty similar. We just want to kind of improve as a team and get some better offense going this year. We struggled scoring in the years past, and we want to get some points scored. But just improve every single day; you know, maybe get a couple more wins than we did last year.”

Gwozdz believes the team’s biggest strength is their defense. He stated, “Last year in the Macomb Area Conference, I think we were at one point like a top-five defense. That’s including the red teams and the white teams and all that in terms of points against.” He wishes for improvements towards the offense and for them to come into the season with energy.