8th Grade Girls Basketball

Basketball player Hailee McAvoy has been playing the sport since she was four years old. She started playing basketball because her parents wanted her to try it out, and ever since then, she has loved it. Her favorite thing about basketball is being on the court and being a part of a team. Besides playing on the Bonny Eagle basketball team for 7th and 8th grade, she had also done Rec ball, a team with boys and girls when she was younger, a travel team in 5th and 6th grade, and she has been playing on a Buxton team since 5th grade.

8th grader from MacCallum clan Meaghan Champagne has also been playing basketball for a while now. She has played for eight years (she started playing in Kindergarten). Her older sisters both play basketball as well. Meaghan grew up watching them play the sport, and she wanted to experience the fast-paced game, too. She has had multiple experiences with playing basketball, like playing for the Bonny Eagle travel team, Standish Rec from kindergarten, YES AAU team, and playing in 5th and 6th grade. Her favorite part about playing basketball is being able to play with her friends.

Hailee and Meaghan were both on the 7th grade team last year. They both agreed that the 7th grade and 8th grade teams are different from each other. The 8th grade team is less diverse and harder. Meaghan feels as if when playing on the 8th grade team there is more pressure on her because this is the time to prepare for the high school basketball team.

This year’s tryouts lasted for three days. The 8th grade girls who were trying out for the team had to show off their skills by doing quick, fast-paced drills, scrimmaging, shooting, dribbling, passing, mini games, and ball handling. Meaghan Champagne stated that the tryouts were organized well. After three days of trying out, the girls finally found out on Thursday who made the team. Meaghan was mixed with different emotions of being excited and being nervous. Once she found out she had made the team, a sigh of relief washed over her.

To choose which positions the girls would play in, each player told Mr. Miremadi (the girls’ coach) which positions they were comfortable playing. They had to make a few adjustments, but overall, most of the girls were allowed to stay in positions they played the best in. Hailee ended up being in the position called “forward,” and Meaghan played point guard. Meaghan believes that point guard is the best position for her because she is not that tall and because she has played that position many times before, so she is used to it.

The 8th grade girls basketball team had a great season with winning seven games. One of the players, Hailee McAvoy, said that the toughest game was against Gorham, which was their first game. The coach kept switching people out so that everyone could experience the game and get used to who they were playing with. Unfortunately, they ended up losing by a couple of points. One of the teammates said everyone was nervous because it was the first game of the season. The hardest thing for Hailee in the game was just the thought that in past years the Bonny Eagle team had lost to Gorham. Despite the challenges these girls faced, in this game they learned the skills they needed to work harder on.

The girls played an assortment of various teams from around the different towns, including teams like Westbrook, Gorham, Saco, Scarborough, and SMC (Southern Maine Catholic). Their last game was on Thursday the 25th of January against King from Portland. This game was at Bonny Eagle, but they lost the game, and the score was 47 to 37. Even though they didn’t end up winning their last game, the girls enjoyed playing and being apart of a team.

There was fourteen girls on the team: Hailee McAvoy, Meaghan Champagne, Allie Hegarty, Emily Osterrieder, Lily Harmon, Delaney Hesler, Sydney Noble, Hayley Jordan, Kaitlyn Regan, Taylor Dery, Amanda Libby, Nathalie Libby, Gabby Sawyer, and Serena Greene, and the team managers were Lily O’Connor and Solveig Marles. Meaghan also stated that basketball has impacted her life in a very positive way. She said that it has showed her how to use leadership skills, and through experiencing basketball she has met a lot of new people. Basketball is a great sport!