With a record marked by several victories, the Bear River Varsity Girls Basketball Team has hopes of earning a spot in the 2019 playoffs, taking place in mid-February.
Longtime Varsity Coach Randy Billingsley has his own expectations for his team.
“Well, my goal for our team is to always make a post-season birth,” said Coach Billingsley. “That is always at the forefront of my mind.”
Junior Grace Billingsley also has desires for making playoffs.
“Our team goals for this year are mostly to beat Colfax,” said Billingsley. “But we really just want to win the rest of our league games, if we can, because we’d like to go to playoffs.”
Some feel that the heat of the game is the most relevant aspect of playing basketball.
“The best part is probably the competitiveness, because I’ve never played at this level before,” said freshman Jordan Foster.
Senior Macey Borchert agreed with Foster.
“Varsity basketball is a lot more competitive and faster,” said Borchert. “I think it’s a lot more fun.”
Different students have different motivations for playing their sport.
“My favorite part about playing varsity basketball is, as compared to JV [Junior Varsity], it’s a lot faster paced and it is a lot more competitive,” said Billingsley. “The games are really fun, especially home games, and the crowd is all there, and everyone is all excited about it.”
Fellow junior Gabi Corralejo brought up her favorite part of being on the team.
“The best part is working as a team to accomplish common goals,” said Corralejo. “It isn’t always winning, though.”
The season has also created many great memories for the entire team.
“[My favorite memory is] probably our home victory against Forest Lake Christian, because it was a really good game,” said Coach Billingsley. “That was like the first time we kind of came together, we played a local rival, we shot the lights out, and really came together as a team that day.”
Foster had similar sentiments.
“So far, it has been winning the Ganskie home tournament,” said Foster.
Billingsley had similar feelings.
“My favorite memory was probably at the tournament that we had down at Live Oak at the beginning of our preseason,” said Billingsley. “We won the tournament and we had a very great team playing.”
Others had more off-court memories.
“Our first team meal, how we were all there having just a great time and getting to know each other,” said Senior Marie-Claire Desplancke.
Borchert felt similarly.
“During a tournament in Durham, we were staying at a house,” said Borchert. ”We all squeezed into this small room where we all slept and we just talked all night.”
Billingsley elaborated on how differently this year of basketball felt compared to last year.
“It is definitely a lot different than last year because most of the people on the team are juniors instead of seniors, and we have two seniors,” said Billingsley. “But everyone is pretty close, because we’ve all played on the same team for a while, and it’s going pretty well.”
“Everyone [on the team] is friends, and we just go out there and have fun,” said Corralejo.
Coach Billingsley continued by describing the best part of coaching basketball.
“[The best part is] the kids, definitely the kids,” said Coach Billingsley. “The energy they bring on a daily basis is exciting and really just a breath of fresh air. It’s the number one reason I’ve been coaching is that of the kids.”
Desplancke finished by talking about all the effort the team puts into their performance.
“We may seem like it’s just a girl sport and no one thinks we put effort into it, but, as a team, we do,” said Desplancke. “We take this very seriously, and I encourage people to come to our games and cheer us on.”
