Swish! Buzz! We all miss the sounds of shoes squeaking on the basketball court and the buzzer-beating swish of the net. Throughout January, three away games and two home games were cancelled for the junior high boys basketball team. The South Side away game was rescheduled from Tuesday, Jan. 27, to Thursday, Jan. 29, due to the FID Day.
“I was just disappointed for the [team]. The season just kind of ended with the weather. Really, it just felt shortened,” Coach John Mohrbacher said.
Both teams showed progress throughout the season no matter the amount. There were multiple new players on the eighth grade team, along with Jaxson Delon (7) and Dominic Matsook (7), who played on both the seventh and eighth grade teams.
“I loved playing for seventh and eighth grade because I have friends on [both teams] and I love playing basketball, so being able to play two games was amazing,” Dominic Matsook (7) said. “For me, [I made the most progress in] handling the ball and my shooting got a lot better. As a team, I think coming together as a team was really good. We were passing a lot more and getting great shots.”
“Seventh graders showed a lot of improvement for their first year of junior high. Eighth graders had some first-year players that helped bring the level of the team up,” Coach Mohrbacher said.
Everyone knows that coaching comes with many challenges, so sticking with it can be a struggle, but Coach John Mohrbacher has been coaching for 15+ years. Coach Mohrbacher is also a substitute teacher at Freedom Area School District.
“I love the challenge of trying to make [the athletes] better. It’s just like teaching,” Mohrbacher said.
The team had their last practice on Feb. 6 to close out the season. They spent the time scrimmaging against each other and reminiscing on the short season. Despite the cancelled games, players pushed through the hard season and were determined to catch a few wins.
“My favorite memory from the season was winning our first game against Keystone Oaks. Winning one game can really show you that you can win and grow on top of that, which is what we did,” Matsook stated.
