Girls Varsity Basketball Gearing Up for Successful Season

Junior Captain Sara Krissinger facing LT at a home game last year.

With a new set of coaches and a refreshed lineup, Girls varsity basketball has never been more ready to attack their 2018-2019 season. In preparation for their first tournament on November 12,  the girls have been working vigorously for the past two weeks for competition season.

Last season, the varsity team made it to the final round of regionals, and the sophomore team, which had many members that are now on varsity, had an almost perfect record. Although there are many changes to last year’s program , the girls are still carrying the fire they had from last year and reflecting on what they could have improved on.

“Last year the [sophomore] team was really in shape so that helped a lot because we could always get up and down the court easy,” said junior varsity player Sara Krissinger. “We could’ve improved on defense, for example we gave up a lot of rebounds”.

The sophomore team last year was very successful; however, a large portion of athletes from last year’s sophomore team chose not to tryout this year, leaving only 5 juniors playing on the varsity level. Because of this, 3 sophomores were brought up to the varsity level: Kaitlyn Kjome, Megan Juneman, and Sydney Molis. Last varsity season, the team was only composed of juniors and seniors. According to their teammates, these underclassmen are full of potential.

“We have a couple sophomores who are being pulled up to varsity that are actually some of our key players,” said Krissinger. “I’m excited because they’ll be on the team for the next 3 years which is really good.”

In addition to major lineup shifts, head varsity coach, Coach Collins, is fairly new to York. While Ttis is his second year coaching varsity, Collins is still new to a majority of the girls on the varsity team, because of the abundant amount of sophomores and juniors who just moved up.

“We have two new coaches so it’s kind of a new environment because with the new coach, he’s setting different standards and the lay out of the season is different,” said junior Megan George.

With their said new environment, the girls have been able to set high goals for themselves and their team this season. While performances on all levels were outstanding last year, the varsity squad is looking to make further strides and uphold a competitive record.

“Our goal is mainly to win conference. We think we could do well this year because we work well together and work hard in practice,” said George. “We also want our shooting percentages to be higher, to limit our mental mistakes, and to beat some of those teams that we’re always competitive with like Benet and Hinsdale Central.”

Although some of these goals will be tough to accomplish, the new and improved varsity team seems up to the challenge.

“We want to win a conference title, which is doable, but we have to work hard to do it,” said Krissinger. “We have a few tournaments and a quad that we want to win which is ambitious also but I think we can do it.”