Middle school teams wrap up sesasons
Members of the Swan River Middle School 6th and 8th grade basketball team swarm a Helena Flats player last week. The game was part of the team's final tournament of the year. Other middle school teams in the area also finished up their seasons last week. Shelley Emslie/for the Bigfork Eagle
After three months of hard work, all four Bigfork area middle school girls basketball teams have wrapped up their seasons and each team has a great deal improvement and success to show for it.
Bigfork Middle School's 8th grade team was coached by Melissa Hardman this year. Her team had 11 girls on it, all but one of which had played before.
"They improved greatly from last year," Hardman said. "Their biggest improvement was in their aggressiveness. They were better at getting the ball to the hoop and their defense was much better."
The girls finished their season 4-8.
"We had a fun season," Hardman said. "They were a great group of girls. They always cheered each other on. They were always supportive. I never had to deal with the girls not respecting one another."
Bigfork Middle School's 7th grade team had 10 girls on it this season, all but one of which played on a Rotary Team last year coached by Dustin Henion, who was also their coach this year.
"They came together really well as a team and learned to depend on each other," Henion said.
The coach focused a great deal of practice time on building on the girls' fundamental basketball skills.
"Once they weren't so worried about their individual skills their team-play got much better," Henion said.
Swan River School's 8th grade girls team found themselves in some numbers trouble at the beginning of the season. The team is usually a 7th and 8th grade team, but only four 8th graders wanted to play and no 7th graders signed up. So the school decided to put the six 6th graders, who would've normally played on the 5th and 6th grade team on the 8th grade team. The combination turned out to be a winning one, as the team finished the season with a 10-4 record.
"The 8th graders came a long way," said their coach Todd Emslie. "They really helped the younger girls a lot. The younger girls really had to step it up too because they were playing against mostly 8th graders."
Without their 6th grade teammates, SRS' 5th grade team had their work cut out for them as they took on teams of mostly 6th graders.
"We were little, but very aggressive and very quick," said the team's coach, Tim Guenzler. "They were a very competitive group."
The 5th grade team from SRS was made up of eight girls, seven of which were playing competitively for the first time. The team finished their season 5-9.
"It's amazing the progress they made over the season," Guenzler said. "In the beginning we worked on the most rudimentary skills you could imagine. They improved so much week to week."