The ball soars through the air and drops through the netting. Swish! Basketball is a fan favorite sport at St. Robert, and Greyhounds junior basketball is one club team that students can play on in addition to the school league. Parker, a student at St. Robert, plays on the junior Greyhounds team.  He enjoys the Greyhounds and overall he has had an amazing experience with his team.

The junior Greyhounds team had a successful year during their 16-17 season, and this year is already off to a good start.  Their success last season helped their team level up from the B league to the B+ league. The leagues are arranged in this way: A, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-. Secondly, while the St. Robert season begins in November and goes through February, the Greyhounds season starts in October, running all the way until March. Parker stated, “We practice at the Shorewood High School sometimes, and then we also practice at Shorewood Intermediate School…, and the practices are 1 hour and 30 minutes [with practices on Tuesday and Thursday, and an optional practice on Saturdays].” They practice at SHS and SIS because Greyhounds is the Shorewood High School sports name, and the junior teams are affiliates of the high school. It is also convenient because the league doesn’t make them travel far for games and tournaments, and according to Parker, the farthest they have traveled for a game was to Wauwatosa. For those interested in joining, the Greyhounds junior team has tryouts every year, and this year they started a two-day tryout.

Parker’s experience with Greyhounds has helped him become an all around better basketball player, but there are some minor conflicts that he faces during the season. In his opinion, he believes that he performed fairly well during tryouts both years. He also believes that if a person knows the basic fundamentals of the game, they have a good shot at snatching a place on the team. However, Parker only has one problem with Greyhounds: their practice and games sometimes interfere with his school basketball on Thursdays and baseball schedule. On the other hand, Parker loves that his coaches push him to be the best he can be, and they help add to his experience by teaching him new plays and informing him with basketball knowledge. Apparently, the Greyhounds coaches have been teaching basketball for many years, therefore they have lots of intellect and experience. Parker thanks his coaches for helping his skills develop over the years., Two of  Parker’s favorite aspects of the game is the high competitiveness and the intensity demonstrated in his league. He states, and “It just ups your playing game.”

All in all, the Greyhounds junior basketball team has been doing well this year, and Parker has used his talents to benefit the team. He is very grateful that he was offered a chance to play on a team with such great coaches urging him to strive for greatness and to never give up on his passion.