Girls' Basketball Had a Huge Year
Under first-year coach Knightly, team qualified for post-season tournaments.
It was a heart-breaking way to go out. At home in the first round of the State Vocational Tournament , with just seventeen seconds left on the clock and the crowd on its feet, the Eagles held a two-point lead in the contest with Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical. Then an Old Colony sharpshooter buried a three-pointer. Eagles lost by one.
Sean Knightly, in his first season as coach of the F.C.T.S. Girls Basketball Team had more than a few things to be proud of, but two things come to mind immediately – a winning 12-8 record and qualifying for both the Massachusetts State Vocational Tournament and Western Mass. Tournament. “I’m very happy, our pre-season goal was to make (the) Western Mass Tournament and we ended up reaching that goal and making (the) Tech Tournament,” said Knightly.
This year’s team was also the recipient of the “sportsmanship” award, which says something about the character of this team. “I’m very proud of all the girls on the team and the effort they put into this season,” said Coach Knightly.
And this team did work hard for success. A typical practice for the girl’s basketball team always starts out with stretches, including “tip toes, knee-highs, lunges, and floor touches.” After stretching the whole team meets up in a circle in the center of the gym and talks about the schedule for the week and positive things that happened during the game or practice the day before. Individual and team goals for the day are then set.
Following the meeting, players all hustle to get a ball and start to lightly jog around the perimeter of the gym to practice their dribbling. After a few laps, they do full court lay-ups, starting with the right hand and then moving to the left. Next the team continues to work on fundamentals like passing, working on plays, shooting and other skills. Every practice ends with a group cheer of “Eagles!”
This is how you build success, one practice at a time.
A definite loss for the team will be senior Brittany Andrews who was named to the All-Western Mass. First-Team and was an important part of this team’s success. Other important contributors were Ashlee Townsley and junior Michelle Leh, who will be returning next year.