The Penns Valley Lady Rams Junior High 8th grade Basketball team had a great season of hard work and positive attitudes. We had an outstanding record of 13-5! Most games were won by 20 or more but there were a couple of nail-biters such as Park Forest, Tyrone, and Huntingdon. These games tested our teamwork and faith in ourselves as a whole unit.
The team consisted of eleven 8th graders, five 7th graders, and two dedicated coaches. There was an abundance of memories made throughout the season from singing while running sprints at practice to rolling on the floor in laughter. Some of the players’ favorite memories are as follows. Point guard number 21, Jordan Johnson stated that her favorite memory of the season was “beating Park Forest with a buzzer-beater deep three and running the play Bark at practice.” Forward number 31, Katie Ruoff made it through a tough season including recovery from an ankle injury. While she persevered through, she made many memories including her favorite of “cheering after games win or lose, and the team bonding that Coach Withrow planned.” My favorite memories throughout my last junior high basketball season were beating Huntingdon at Huntingdon by 4 points, 35-31, and when we implemented a new play called Rutgers 2 also known as Bark. This was where we got on the ground and barked while the ball was inbounded. This was our team’s secret weapon, though we never used it in an actual game.
There were many more memories that I could go on and on about, like how we made different handshakes when fist-bumping Coach T or how we would shoot half-court shots at practice to try to convince Coach not to make us run. Though some games were lost, we were always told by Coach Troxell that “It isn’t a bad game unless you don’t learn from it.” One of the most rewarding things was coming into the locker room after a win and yelling “2 games, 2 wins!” Overall, many things were learned whether related to basketball or life lessons that will be carried out of season. Without our coaches, we could not have grown as much as we did as a family. “Family on three! 1, 2, 3, Family!”
