AMHS Varsity Girls Basketball Team

A closer look at the girls basketball team

Susannah Ryan and Jordan Thomas|January 16, 2020

Last Friday, the Lady Raptors entered region play for the 2019-2020 season. Starting off with a shocking 13-1 record, the girl’s varsity basketball team has made noticeable progress since the start of the season. The lady raptors had the odds stacked against them at the beginning of the season, as the team lost five highly valuable players who graduated last year, and got a new coach (Steve Jones) who made major changes that the team was not used to.

In addition to the turnover in the coaching staff, the lady raptors have experienced numerous injuries that have set them back in the early season. Kate Waldorf (sophomore) tore her ACL suspending her from participating in this season. Izzy Custer (sophomore) sprained her left glute and Cassie Brisbin (senior) suffered from a knee injury in the summer, preventing her from playing at the beginning of the season. And lastly, Jordan Thomas (senior) postponed a finger surgery to participate in the season, broke her toe very soon after that, and had two back-to-back concussion scares.

Due to the many complications presented, this season can be considered a transition year for the girl’s varsity basketball program, laying the foundation for stronger seasons in the future. Coach Jones uses a “TLC” method of laying the core values of the team as trust, loyalty, and commitment represented by wooden poker chips given to each player to ensure that each player works together to put in maximum effort during practices and games. Besides working on fundamentals and plays, being on the team means more than just playing basketball. After fourteen games of adjustment, the team is ready for region play to commence.

“

I think it’s really special

— Jack Dillard

The roster is as follows:

Emerson Rampey (9)

Lucy Manuel (10)

Anne Young (10)

Izzy Custer (10)

McKenna Ronchetto (10)

Amelia Kitchens (10)

Kate Waldorf (10)

Haley Bryan (11)

Alyssa Kapinos (11)

Tabitha Johnson (11)

Anna Cook (11)

Cassie Brisbin (12)

Piper Monk (12)

Susannah Ryan (12)

Jordan Thomas (12)

To gain more insight on how the season is going, we interviewed one of the captains, sophomore Izzy Custer:

Describe your pre-game ritual:

“I like to go to the duck pond to feed ducks whatever we find in our lunchboxes. We drink energy drinks which are useless because we are still tired when the game starts”

Favorite pre-game Song?

“No Role Modelz by J.Cole because I know the words”

What is your favorite memory with the team?

“That one time we won was kinda nice, it wasn’t a feeling that we were used to”

What are you looking forward to for the rest of the season?

“Getting better, and not losing by 60 points anymore”

What is your favorite part about the sport of basketball?

“I like shooting until I get blocked, then I never shoot again”

What do you like about being a captain?

“I like the awkward interaction of not knowing whether or not to shake the other team’s hands or to give them a fistbump”

What do you do after the games?

“Cry”

“

Cry

— Izzy Custer

Do you have a nickname on the team? If so what is it?

“‘Dino’. Pronounced (Dee-no). Not really sure how it started, but I think coach was just making fun of the way I run. Also ‘slow-motion’ is a classic.”

Do you have any inside jokes on the team? If so, what are they?

“Basketball is calling, I must go. Iykyk. We need some merch with that on it”