In Students of the Game, student athletes take you behind the scenes with local high school teams, providing a look into the life of a student athlete.
Today’s article is written by Chilliwack senior basketball player Olivia Goertzen, whose Storm team reaps the rewards of hard work and dedication.
An average week in life of a Chilliwack secondary school basketball player includes practicing a minimum of twice a week after school, as well as two home or away games. The short season requires a serious commitment from players, and the girls on our team have really stepped up.
Playing a high school sport may seem like added stress to many students. Many of us play multiple sports, have a heavy academic course load, have a job and donate hours as volunteers.
But we always make time for practice.
We book time off from our jobs and do homework in the change room before practice because each girl is individually motivated to be the best player they can be and our team is always working to make each other better.
Each of our players has a serious competitive side fuelling a desire to learn new plays and push ourselves during scrimmages.
We call it practice under pressure.
Our workouts always include our team warm up, with music by Megan (Hoogeveen), to get everyone’s energy up.
We get right to work, starting with pressure lay-up drills and shooting practice.
Our coach (Nicole Williams) is always watching that we don’t drop passes, ready to ‘inspire’ us with sets of lines.
This has been especially effective and our passing in games has definitely improved, as well as our fitness.
A typical game day starts in the morning with team messages in our chat, already getting our heads into the game so we’re mentally prepared for that evening.
The players are always at the gym a minimum of 45 minutes early to warm up and discuss our strategies.
This year’s team has a variety of skill levels and players that can play various positions on the court and much of our practices are focused on developing these positions.
Often, we will discuss both personal and team goals for the game, such as working on our communication or running a new play successfully.
Every warm up is about becoming mentally prepared as a team and being ready to play hard right from tip-off.
This season we have put extra focus on communication and team bonding, and preparing our Grade 11’s for next year.
The relationship between the seniors and the Grade 11’s is a big part of our success, right down to our team’s group chat on Facebook where we constantly discuss the day’s practice and upcoming game strategies.
Our team is currently prepping for our first tournament this weekend in Penticton, practicing our offenses and running new plays.
We just had our last home game, during our exam week, and our team fought hard until the last minute, losing by only a few points.
Our team has come together for a strong season this year.
We’ve faced many challenges over the past three years, but with the help of our coach, (Williams) our offense is looking stronger than ever and the athleticism of our players has made our defense a force to be reckoned with.