5-8. That’s the record of the girls basketball team so far this season (through Jan. 24th). To someone who doesn’t follow the team that may not sound impressive, but those that have kept up with the Raptors the past few years know that it speaks greatly to the improvement the team has made. With the in region win against Hanahan High School January 18th, the team surpassed its total wins from last year. Our coach wanted us to “celebrate the little victor[y],” so he surprised us with Chick-Fil-A catering before practice the next day.

There’s one statistic that really illustrates the improvement we’ve had as a team. We lost to Burke two years in a row. Between the two games, we lost with a total score of 113-13 points. When we played this year, with no injuries or illnesses keeping out key players on either team, we won the game by a pretty large lead.

I asked Lucy Manuel and Anne Young, co- captains along with myself, what they thought. Echoing the same sentiment, Anne said we have improved as a team while Lucy commented on the level of respect that has increased as well.

As Senior Ashley Windham put it, “we can actually, like, win games now. We won five whole games and got a Chick-Fil-A party… [We’re] trying to not be the worst Magnet sport.” The true win is the Chick-Fil-A if you ask me.

You may have noticed last Monday, some of the girls had on their team gear- sweatpants, jacket, white jersey, white shorts. As the senior prank, we had our Coach “require everyone” to wear their full sweats or else they ran the risk of running “sweet sixteens” (you run across the court 16 times in one minute and if you don’t make it, you do it again) and they couldn’t play in the game on Tuesday. “One team, one uniform,” our Coach texted us. As you can imagine, the underclassmen weren’t too happy and, in response, added a little something to our team picture…

While we work hard, we also have fun as a team. Junior Kate Gieg said her favorite memory from this year is a toss up. One practice, our coach called out people to name a drill for us to do and it was a very fun, player-led practice in her opinion. Another favorite, which I believe most of the team shares, was our overtime win against North Charleston. It was an exciting, energy filled game that came down to the very end. “Holly came through,” Kate told me (Holly made both her free throws which ultimately led to the overtime win).

One “interesting” memory from Junior Livia Carroll comes from the Colleton County game. Some of the girls stopped at Kay’s Place, a “shack on the side of the road,” leading to a “universal experience…” I’m not quite sure what that means, but it definitely made an impression because later, Ashley also asked me to include it.

Another shared memory comes from one of our first games this year. We were taking the bus to Cathedral Academy, somewhere between 15-20 minutes away from Magnet. However, our bus started driving the wrong way. Finally, one of the girls texted our coach who fixed the problem, but we spent around an hour on the bus that day when it was only supposed to be a third of that!

As far as practices go, we’re separate from the JV girls team unlike years past or even earlier in the season. Coach Ty takes those girls to the SOA gym now while Varsity stays at Magnet. It’s sad to not be around the other girls as much, but with the gym to ourselves we can do more full court work and not have as many distractions. Maybe that’s why we got our Sesame sponsorship…

It also hopefully means both teams won’t be affected if there are Covid-related problems. Like most of the other sports teams, we’ve had to deal with infected players and close contacts throughout the season. Return to play protocols have kept players out of games and playing in a mask is definitely a disadvantage. I don’t know how we did it last season! We’ve been able to keep going though, and have already played more games than last year.

A huge part of our growth has come from the coaching. While Coach Stevie is very tall and can be loud, he does truly care about the team. He likes to have fun, like when he played “All Too Well” at practice or “Party in the USA” before a game, but he also knows when we can be pushed harder and need to “lock in.” He has confidence and trust in each of us. He likes to yell, “Boo-yah!” when he thinks a jumper or a 3 is going in. He’s not always right, but it’s nice to know he believes in the shot.

I would also like to include a thank you for his support not involving basketball. Last Thursday evening, the 27th, we had our Guitar 2 Symposium at school and he showed up to watch my performance as well as a former player’s. He was very complimentary about it and very supportive, which means a lot.

I once asked Coach Stevie how much time he spends thinking about basketball a day and his answer was 16 hours. 16 HOURS! I believe it- the man loves basketball. Livia asked him if he had anything he wanted to include about our team in the article and he shared that “basketball season is the longest and toughest season of all high school sports. Although the official Start of the Season is November, preseason workouts start in late September. There are 6 holidays throughout the basketball season, including Thanksgiving and Christmas, and let’s not forget about Winter break. So while most of the other students are enjoying break, the girls basketball team finds themselves playing in both a Thanksgiving tournament and one tossed in between Christmas and New Years. Then there’s the E-Learning days or days when there’s no school. We are often in the gym at 9:00 am while most of our classmates are still in their bed sleeping. Why? Because we are basketball players and we love this game.” He also said “the hardest part as a coach is I truly love each one of the girls. The thought of 7 of them graduating this year makes me sad.”

Ashley agreed, saying she’s “sad it’s almost over.” “Basketball is the funnest season. I feel like I have a lot of fun,” she continued. “It’s gonna be so sad when were all gone,” Senior Chloe Wren added. “I’m friends with people I’d never see otherwise… we’re all connected through having ‘classroom discussions,'” she said in reference to the underclassmen on the team.

Senior Night is February 4th at home against Hanahan High School. According to Mr. Cosgrove, the girls games are “very interesting. You guys improved.” Mrs. Lankford said during the game she saw, we “were scrappy and good” and that she’d “like to go to more.” There you have it! It should be a good game, so be sure you come support both girls and boys varsity!