The Sweet Home High School girls wrapped up their basketball season with a 53-25 loss to Newport Feb. 19.
They finish the season 0-12 in league and 1-22 overall. The girls grabbed a 43-33 against Scio in the preseason.
“My goal when I took the job was to be able to teach the girls a press break,” said Coach Michelle Knight. “Probably midway through the season, I forgot that was my goal because we did it so well. We had so many little victories that weren’t really in the score of the game.”
And they did it in a tough league, with Stayton and Philomath ranked in the top 10 and Newport at 12th, Knight said. “I just felt like we did some really great things.”
Outside of league wins, the team accomplished some goals, Knight said, noting that the team hasn’t won a league game in 10 years.
“I wanted them to learn how to play basketball, and at the end of the season they knew how to play basketball,” she said. “We still have a lot of work to do – Most of the battle is within their own minds.”
The girls were easy to coach, Knight said. When the coaching staff asked them to do something or try something, they enthusiastically did everything the coaches asked.
“I was proud of them,” Knight said.
The team graduates five seniors, Kennedi Waldrop, Christina Belcher, Kate Hawken, Anna Coleman and exchange student Rimi Kanaya.