The coming of the winter season means a lot of things, but for some Oakville sports fans, that means girls basketball. The season officially started at the beginning of November, though practices began in October. The team as a whole is divided into freshman, junior varsity and varsity teams. As of Dec.19, the varsity record is 6-2 and the girls still have a lot of the season left to play

The team’s coaches, Emily Baker and Laura Bishop, say the team puts in a lot of hard work and get along well. They also say that while the girls are athletic, their weak point is finishing shots. The varsity team includes six seniors, and overall the team has a lot of experience.

But with a new season comes new players. Those upperclassmen who have been playing in past seasons have been having to adjust to the new additions to the team.

“It’s strange getting used to it, I guess. The seniors last year were really fundamental players and we needed them,” Sami Simokatis (11)  said. “New people are stepping into different roles that they haven’t found themselves in yet.”

Though adjustments to the team’s structure have been difficult to some, a lot of hard work is being put in by both upperclassmen and lowerclassmen players.

“The girls are working very hard. We’re putting in a lot of effort during practice and we’re not perfect so far in our games,” Simokatis said, “but we at least make the effort to do good.”

The team gets along well on both the court and outside of it. Practices, away games and time spent in and outside of school together work to build a bond between teammates. 

“Outside of school all of us are pretty close, so it helps on the basketball court too because we all hang out,” Kylie Anderson (12) said.

But the sport isn’t all bonding and playing games. Players have several practices between games where they work to build their skills and their on court communication.

“Practices are full of a lot of hard work. There’s a lot of running sometimes, but mostly just hard work,” Simokatis said.

The conditioning in practices and the hard work in games can take a toll on players, and since practices are every day, players have little time between practice and games to rest.

“People will get injured a lot, but it’s kind of hard to recover if we don’t have enough time to rest,” Sydney Baker (11) said. “But that’s just all part of the sport.” 

The girls next game is a home game this Wednesday, Dec. 21. at 6:00 p.m. Come out and support your Tigers as they play against Columbia High School.