The echo of basketballs pounding off the wood floors, shoes screeching up and down the court, girls communicating plays with one another. It’s 7:00am, and the BSM girls’ basketball team is already hard at work in the Haben Center.

This year the girls’ basketball team has started running early morning practices to more readily prepare for the upcoming basketball season. “We have had early morning practices and I’m really happy to see players stepping up this year,” senior captain Skye Kosek said.

The team has been working hard throughout the offseason as well; during the summer, they had a basketball summer camp and did conditioning. During the fall season, they partook in more preparation for the winter season.  “We had captains’ practices and workouts to get ready for the season, along with personal training,” senior captain Morgan Frank said.

The opening week of the season started with two days of tryouts, two days with two practices each, and then another practice, with scrimmages on Saturday. As the season progresses practices are usually two hours long every weekday that the team doesn’t have a game, along with film occasionally before practices and games.  This season, the girls’ basketball team is without three seniors who were a huge part of last year’s team, but went on to graduate.  A few sophomores have made it up to varsity this year, and the team hopes to see these players develop this season.

The team has several goals for this season, including to give a full effort game in and game out.  “I would say our ultimate goal is to play as hard as we can every game,” Kosek said.

In addition to putting the work in, the team would also love to keep their starters on the court throughout the season.  “One of the goals is to become one healthy team with no injuries and drama,” Frank said.

Of course the captains’ ultimate dream is to go to State their senior year. The coaches have done a variety of things to help the team reach their goals this season. Coach Lyons has added early morning practices, and has helped the team in the long run by being harder on them with more running and longer practices. The coaches have also been very clear on what they want, and have also created plays to keep the team in shape.

The girls’ basketball team is prepared to stack up against the competition this year. The captains believe they have a favorable schedule this year and are prepared for a good season. “A lot of teams are down because of losing seniors; we are ranked second in the [Metro West] Conference right now behind [Robbinsdale] Cooper,” Kosek said.

In order to have legitimate success this season the girls know they need some players to step up. “We need a post player to step up this year after losing Abby Wilgers last year; we need our sophomore guards Cheyanne [Carter] and Aiana [Whitfield] to step up,” Kosek said.