After seven weeks of strenuous conditioning, the Carlmont girls’ basketball coach Richard Stevens held tryouts last week. The tryouts ended with 12 girls on the varsity team, 10 on junior varsity, and two girls cut during tryouts.
Not enough players were available to make a freshman team, although one skilled freshman was placed on the varsity team.
One question remains: Why were so few girls cut last week? When compared to the relatively high count of girls trying out for other popular winter sports, the numbers don’t add up.
One of the reasons may be the training program that prospective players endured before tryouts. According to Stevens, one of every four prospective players opted out during pre-season conditioning, which occurred five days a week, usually from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. over the course of seven weeks.
“I think the main reason [players left] was that they weren’t quite ready for how hard they were going to need to work and how much time it was going to take to invest in this whole program,” Stevens said.
Other reasons could be found in the need for a balance between sports and school. Last year, many players did not participate in the basketball program due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For some, this resulted in an imbalanced exercise routine and inexperience in balancing sports with schoolwork.
“I definitely haven’t been working out and wasn’t expecting the amount of physical activity there was. It was extremely rigorous, and I went home exhausted the first day,” said sophomore Brooklyn Alexander, who left the program after two and a half weeks of conditioning. “I had less time for the activities I wanted to do, and it took a toll on my mental abilities for when I went home and did homework.”
Especially for underclassmen, many did not get the chance to adapt to the harshness of high school sports as they were not able to participate in a full season last year. While Stevens highlighted his concern with the lack of training over the past year, he also noted that the players didn’t seem to have as massive of a skill gap as he expected.
“With last year, with COVID-19, it was kind of a lost year. [The players] didn’t really get to practice much, so they’re really coming off of a year where they’ve barely got in the gym,” Stevens said. “So now we’re throwing everything at them for a full-on season. Their skill level is better than I was expecting, but they’re still learning everything and playing with some hesitation.”
To catch up in terms of physical fitness, many girls felt mandated to participate in pre-season conditioning to prepare for the rigor of the upcoming season. However, some players took a different approach.
“I didn’t go to conditioning,” said Misha Zhou, a junior player on JV. “I was busy with work and SAT prep.”
A handful of players who felt obligated to go eventually questioned whether or not it was worth the struggle.
“I quit because I felt like it wasn’t for me, and if I liked basketball, I should enjoy going to conditioning,” said sophomore Isabelle Chrobak, who left training after three weeks. “I realized it wasn’t making me happy, and it was something I felt forced to go to. I didn’t find it fun anymore, and I just stopped doing it.”
For some, it is still challenging to leave a sport after dedicating so much time to it.
“Basketball was the one thing I felt good in, and now that I’m not playing, I sort of feel less than other people. People always ask, ‘What sport are you good at? What do you play?’ and now I don’t have that,” Alexander said. “I wanted to continue playing in high school. The decision was challenging but good for me in the long run.”
For those who made the team, they are learning how to build a strong community while playing in a generally new environment.
“I think we’re a strong team overall. The most important thing is just learning how to work together because there’s a lot of new players on the team, and we need to figure out each other’s playing styles,” said Dana Boudreau, a sophomore JV player.
The first varsity game will be a home game on Nov. 18 against the Notre Dame Tigers, with the JV game taking place the following week. According to Stevens, during the peak of the season, the program’s main goal is to work on footwork and the proper shooting stance at practice five days a week.
Stevens said, “They need to learn the new system. I’m throwing a whole bunch of new plays and terminology at them, and a whole different way of doing things than they’ve done in the past.”
