PHS Girl’s Basketball continues to win

Selina D., Staff Reporter
January 17, 2012
Filed under Sports

The PHS girls’ basketball team has had an excellent season so far this year. With a total of eight games left in the season -including rival matches against Oak Mountain, Thompson and Hoover- the girls’ basketball team has a current record of 15-3 after a disappointing loss against Oak Mountain Tuesday night.

However, the team won Oak Mountain 47-41 in the Shelby County tournament championship on Dec. 20 at Bank Trust Arena on the University of Montevallo campus.

Going into the Shelby County Tournament, Coach Jeremy Simpson remarked that his expectations were “the same as every other game, to grow and learn that doing the simple things always brings victory in everything in life.” He also added, “If you happen to score more points than the other team, that’s not too bad either.” Point taken.

Kaitlin B. stated, “Going in, we knew were the underdogs, but we also knew that we would win.”

Following their victory, Kate K. remarked, “Nobody else expected us to win. We just showed everybody how good we are.”

The girls’ team has had to overcome many challenges this season including injuries that have caused girls to miss a lot of practice time including a torn ACL that ended a season. However, the biggest struggle has “without a doubt” been trying to overcome a very negative perception from outsiders about the program and their six-win season last year.

“Outside of myself and our girls, everyone judged us based on last year and expected us to struggle again. And convincing people that this team is different and making believers out of people is an ongoing process that is frustration for the girls at times but fun in the end,” Coach Jeremy Simpson explained.

When asked about his position as the new girls’ coach, Simpson commented, “I love coaching basketball as an avenue to teach successful life skills in ways that go beyond the normal opportunities a teacher can have in the classroom. This group of girls more than probably any group I have ever coached seems to listen and really take things to heart and want to learn and grow to be not just better basketball players but more importantly better people.”

Kaitlin B. added that “Yes!” She enjoyed having Simpson as the new coach because, “he doesn’t yell, and he teaches us just as much about life as he does basketball and he lets us have fun.”

Simpson later added, “We are blessed with six senior that all do an amazing job of filling their roles of times to lead and times to follow. We couldn’t do without any of them.”