This year, St. Robert School has seen a big change in one part of their sports program: their 8th grade girls basketball team has joined with St. Monica’s. This change was due to the issue of not having quite enough people sign up for the 8th grade girls basketball team at St. Robert, but the St. Robert players have found that this change was a good thing for their team, especially in gameplay.
Aubree, an 8th grade girl who plays basketball with St. Robert School, points out that the change has helped their game to improve: “Things have changed from the basketball team last year because we have new plays that have helped us get more points and have better shots put up. The changes have helped the team get better because we have been able to communicate better than last year and we have been able to talk with one another while we are on the court.” Aubree points out that since they have joined an entirely new team than last year, they have learned a lot of new plays while also keeping the old ones in mind. Having all of these different things that they can do during the game has helped their team to improve a lot. Also, playing with different people who play the game a little differently and can put fresh inputs in has helped their game to improve as well. Netta, another St. Robert player, also points out that the change in the 8th grade girls basketball team has been good for the girls’ gameplay: “We’re playing with different kids that have different techniques so we’ve learned a lot from them,” she explains. Since they are playing with new people this year, the players can get new input on how they play and learn new things.
Aubree also points out that the change has affected the atmosphere of the team in a positive way: “Being with new people helps the team because when you are with new people you can have different people help you with things that need to be improved and they help you play and see the game differently.” Since the team has switched, and there are a lot of new players on it this year, players can get fresh input and there has been a change in the atmosphere. This helps to refresh the atmosphere of the team because there are new and different people with different thoughts.
Netta also points out that it feels almost like they are starting over from scratch again: “…we are almost just starting over. Some of our plays are almost identical to what we played last year but there are new ones that we all have to learn too.” Having to start over, especially in gameplay, can be hard for the players from St. Robert. They have entirely new coaches with different views on how to play the game and different plays that they run in order to get more points in games. There are a lot of new things that the girls have to learn that they don’t know anything about because they haven’t played with St. Monica for the past three years. Having to start over when other people on the team know so much about what you are trying to learn can be frustrating for the St. Robert girls.
In conclusion, the change in the St. Robert School’s 8th grade girls basketball team has proven to have both positives and negatives. They think that the change has really helped the way they play to improve. Also, getting fresh input from new people helped them each personally to improve more. The St. Robert girls are happy that they are able to play this year, but they do say that there are some ways that this combination could be improved and there are some things about this change that just aren’t as pleasant as they were when they were only the St. Robert’s team. However, they love the sport and think that their new team works really well together.
