The Girls Varsity Basketball team is competing against many other girls varsity teams in a Holiday Tournament in Cicero in the middle of December. 

The team will play from December 27th through December 30th at Morton Junior College. They will be playing a total of four games, starting with a game against Deerfield, and then will continue to play many other high ranking teams. 

The Varsity Girls will be competing against some of the top teams in the state such as “Bennett Academy who we’ve played already, and they were really good,” Amelia Young, senior and one of the team’s captains, said. “They’re ranked second in the state.” 

And that ranking is on the team’s minds.

 “I think it’s going to be difficult for us. We play a tough schedule all around every year, just to better ourselves for regionals and our conference,” Young said.  “There’s a lot of really good teams in this tournament.” 

In order to prepare for the season, the team has been doing a lot to make sure they are prepared, by knowing their positions, doing man to man drills, looking at past mistakes, as well as doing other drills and activities to “prepare for the playoffs” and the season in general, according to Micheal Kaufman,  assistant coach. The team also has practice almost everyday for 1-3 hours and will play games throughout the week throughout the season.

 “I think we have been doing really well. With the teams that we played against, we’ve already played a bunch of challenging teams, but I think overall, even though we do have a few losses, we’ve been keeping up with them and coming out strong,” Alyana Soukup, senior and one of the team’s varsity captains, said.

If the team wins against Deerfield, they will then go on to play Bowling Brooke and continue to play more top teams in the state. Although the team has been practicing and sharpening up their skills all season, according to Young, “it’s gonna be a tough few games.”

Even though it’s going to be a challenging tournament ,“I love basketball. I love the environment. I love everyone on my team,” Young said.” I wasn’t even going to play basketball when I was a freshman but one of the coaches convinced me and I’ve loved it ever since. I wouldn’t change it for anything.”