With their seasons well underway, both the men’s and women’s basketball teams have been practicing hard this winter. The players and coaches have sacrificed much of their energy and time, including part of their Christmas break, in order to compete.
Both the men and women’s teams play again at Alfred University this Friday night. While the women are 8-9 overall in season, the men hold a record of 0-18.
“We have had our ups and downs. With a new coach it’s a struggle, but she’s doing a really good job,” said senior captain Michelle Persons, “We have a couple injuries right now, some are key players, but we keep working through it and giving it our all, hoping everything comes together.”
“No matter if we are up by 30 or down by 30, we are working hard,” said Head Women’s Basketball Coach Alicia Mucher. “Mentality is more important than focusing on what the end goal should be as far as wins and losses. If you have a good mentality, those things will fall in line.”
Junior captain Kristen Moose leads the conference in points per game. She also holds the team record in points, three pointers, assists, and free throws. Freshman Maisie Pipher leads the team in rebounds and blocks. Junior Kaitlin Hammersley, senior Kaitlyn Gaffney and Persons are also on the statistical leader board.
“The competitiveness, what teams’ strengths are at this division are just different from NAIA; the type of athlete that you are up against is a little different. So the goal was to get a feel for things, but to make a statement that we should be in this conference and we are going to be competitive,” said Mucher. “Our more recent goal is to determine the kind of team we want to be remembered as. In the past couple weeks we decided we want to be known as relentless.”
For the men, senior captain Christopher Confair leads the team in rebounds and points, followed by senior captain Mark O’Brien and senior Seth Shay. Junior Matthew Ball records the most blocks while junior Andrew Makori has made the most assists.
“[This season] has definitely been a learning experience for all of us, but I think we have grown more into a family,” said Confair. “We as a team have been enjoying the opportunity to just play the game we love.”
Both teams have suffered from some injuries that have disabled them from playing with a full roster. Many younger players have been stepping into roles previously filled by the upperclassmen.
“So some of that has been tough, but every day the guys come in and practice with a great attitude, great mentality, and they continue to work hard in spite of the lack of success we have had in the win loss column,” said Head Men’s Basketball Coach Andrew Hannan.
Regardless of their play on the court, both teams try to foster spiritual growth on their teams. Through various activities and devotionals, teammates encourage each other.
“We try to volunteer around the area to help people in need, whether that is through children’s church or Operation Christmas Child,” said Confair. “No matter the outcome of our games and practice we thank God for the opportunity to play for Him.”
The basketball teams always offer to pray with the opposing team after a match. As the choice is left to their competitors, some accept the offer while others do not. [I would erase this paragraph]
“We usually do devotions at Coach’s house, sometimes once a week, sometimes every other week. We have also done prayer groups in the past,” said Persons. “We love to do the Burden Run every year, which is a spiritual run. It’s just a short jog where we lay out all our struggles to the team and pray for each other.”
“We are not about the individual, we are about doing the best we can individually for the good of the team,” said Hannan. “So, it takes some sacrifice on everyone’s part.”