Rewind to three years ago. Our baketball program was in shambles and the coach had just been let go. We regrouped as an athletic department and hired a new coach. The school gave him our total support, and that was the foundation.
The girls on the team were freshmen and sophomores. They were committed, but needed fine tuning. Actually, they needed a lot of practice! It was a rough first season for the new coach. I think they won four games total.
Last year, the crew continued to put in effort and trust in the coach. They finished the season with a 500 record and made the playoffs. Little Mercy Burlingame with no gym, got the chance to dance in the post season.
Tonight in the CCS quarter finals I had fun watching the team play. Our defense was polished, and we made some clutch baskets. We had more people cheering Mercy in the stands than NDB in their home gym! Students of all grades were there as well as parents, and about 20 faculty members. It was our community in full force. We were Mercy proud.
The juniors and seniors on the team played confidently. They are a core that has been together a long time and it showed. We had to make some tough decisions this year in terms of the roster, but we took a smaller team, plus some dynamic freshmen and the chemistry worked.
When the final buzzer went off, the score was 30-38. It didn’t do this team justice, they ran out of time. As the seniors wiped tears away, I hugged them. I told them I was proud of them. Only one team gets to end their career on a win, and it’s ok if it wasn’t them this year. They have left their mark on our program and left it better than they found it.
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