In the past year the Urbandale Girls Basketball Team has faced many challenges, through going through a global pandemic, losing 3 of the 5 starters, two players tearing their ACLs this past summer, as well as gaining a new coaching staff. Although, there were two returning junior varsity coaches Dani Breon and Ty Sharon. Ty Sharon has been a part of the Urbandale Girls Basketball program since 2017. These players are now juniors. Through the bumps in the road, Coach Sharon has been able to be one of the few constants that the team has had. Sharon has had many memories with the girls on the team, from watching them play in their 8th grade year to playing on varsity. Since there have not been a lot of constants in the program having one coach, even if it is a junior varsity coach, being there through many challenges makes everything better for the girls.
As a whole this has been a challenging year for the girls on the basketball team with a record of 4-8. Each one of the players on the team has had their own time to shine on the court. One of the sayings that has been around the Girls program is “Play Together. Stay Together” This varsity team truly embodies the meaning of this saying. As a whole the team is just like a family, even with a family there are ups and downs, that is true with this team. No matter what the score ends up being in the locker room it is laughs and giggles. Senior Meredith Umland said that the bus rides and locker room jams will be what she misses the most when she graduates. Taylor Mulligan (freshmen) stated that all of the upperclassmen were so welcoming and inclusive and really changed her views on basketball as a whole. When playing a sport, there is the saying leave what happens outside of the gym at the door. Another thing that this team truly follows through with. No matter their day at school, they can all come together for practice and somehow end up laughing the entire time.
This 2020-2021 season came with many twists and turns, however the team navigated through the tough times. Coach Baethke stated that the most rewarding part of the season is watching the team grow, with the improvement of the seniors which helped the whole team improve over the course of the year.From the first week of practice back in November then the very next week being put on hold while the entire school went all online due to the rising COVID numbers. At that time each and every one of the girls thought there wouldn’t be a season for them. However with the start of Christmas break meant there could be practices. For the juniors and the underclassmen of the team will now have to step up into their place on the team since there are nine seniors leaving. The 2020 season brought many challenges on the team but each of the girls embraced the challenge and had a great season all together.
Girls Basketball Team on Senior Night
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