The girls basketball season has begun, and with that, the program leadership has set out to bring in some new traditions as a way to keep building off previous years’ accomplishments and challenges. 

One of those new traditions is called Battle Tested, which is an outside program that offers both motivational speaking events and obstacle course activities. 

“The girls had a really great time with [this program so far]; it was really high energy and good to kick off our season,” Varsity Head Coach Greg Dorgan said.

Coach Dorgan added he wants to have high energy going into games in order to improve from last year’s season. He plans on doing this by making practices as competitive as possible– often combining with JV. 

“As a team, I feel like we have to communicate with each other better and [work together] as a family rather than have separate groups as a team,” said Diana Nanos, a junior who plays point guard on varsity. 

Nanos also said it feels better to be playing new team members this season because she gets to understand players ‘ playing types. This may be useful to the team, too, because the team nearly won some of the conference games last season– losing 27-21 against Warren High School, for example. 

“We have a whole team who’s been together for two years now, so we’re definitely building off of what we had last year, and I think we’re definitely improving,” said Rylan Foster, a sophomore varsity player.

Foster, who plays both small and power forward, said she thinks team bonding is a huge aspect to the growth of the team as a whole. She often stays after practice with other players to shoot around or practice passing, which she said really helps to grow a bond with the other players. 

Nanos explained that due to playing through a pandemic, the team as a whole has come out much improved. 

“I feel like last year was very hard, but given that circumstance, I feel like we did really well as a team,” Nanos said. “As a team, we bonded really well, and this year, [with the] returning varsity, I feel like we’re stronger because of last year’s hardship.”

This year both Nanos and Foster would like to put up a good fight against Stevenson High School and Libertyville High School. Last year MHS lost to Stevenson 64-22 and Libertyville 55-8. Although this was the case, both noted the team has been improving and that the team may have a better outcome this season. 

Additionally, Dorgan said he wants to help the girls achieve their goals of putting up a good fight against these opponents by making sure they do not get taken off the dribble or get contested shots on defense. 

He also noted, “We’re trying to improve; we definitely need to score more points in our conference and not give up easy baskets on the defensive end.”

Dorgan said he thinks that if the girls outcompete other teams, they may have a good shot at achieving their goals. 

Foster said, “I’m excited for more games because it gets us prepared for next year, and we’re a young team, so the more games, the better.”