The Season Comes to an End....

            Westmorland County Community College's women's basketball team, the Lady Wolf pack, ended their season this weekend in Anne Arundel, Maryland. They ended their season with a record of 15-11 losing their final game to Rockville in the regional playoffs. Returning to the team next year will be seven sophomores, while the two sophomores that played there final game Friday night with The Lady Wolf pack will be greatly missed. So at the end of the day Friday, sitting in our hotel rooms, reality set in that the 2010 - 2011 basketball season had come to an end. Winning our game Friday against Rockville would have given us the chance to win a regional championship, and if we did win regional’s a chance to go to nationals. There are steps that need to be taken for our team to grow as individuals, and as a team. So as one must always remember, there is always next year, and that is the thought I have going into the 2011 - 2012 basketball season.

            So we arrived in Anne Arundel, Maryland around 2 p.m. on Friday, leaving Westmorland at 10 a.m. We had a small amount of time to go to our rooms and relax before heading back down to the bus to head to Anne Arundel Community College to play our game against Rockville. We had been given the 5^th seed in the tournament and they had been the 4^th seed. Questions had been asked of our team, are they tough enough, physical enough to hang with teams from Maryland? Is there any way that Westmorland can even have a chance in winning this game? In our own minds we did have the skill, the ability to beat Rockville, and win the regional tournament, we just fell short. The game started off slow with the score being very low, due mostly to our defense playing at the level expected, and offensively our team did not finish as anticipated. Our point guard picked up two quick fouls, and had to be taken out of the game so she did not pick up any more. This changed the pace of the game, but it is basketball these things happen. Then I needed a break, sitting from the bench the score seemed to go up by 10 then by 20, and before I knew it we were losing the game by almost 20 points. I thought to myself how are we going to come back now and win this, everyone seemed to have given up. Before going into half time our team had gotten it to a 10 point game with Rockville on top. The 2^nd half started pretty much the same way the 1^st half did, very slow with neither team scoring until about four minutes into the game when one of our sophomore forwards hit a free throw. It seemed at this point things got started we got it to a four point game, but our layups just wouldn’t seem to fall. The remaining time of the 2^nd half we seemed to go point for point with Rockville never again taking the lead. We lost by 10, and this was the end of our journey, just left with the thoughts of what we could have, should have done, but did not do. This game marked the end of our 2010 – 2011 basketball season.     

            Our journey to get to regional’s was a long one, we had many ups and downs throughout the season, and at some points the question was raised on if we would even get to go to regional’s at all. Attitudes and personalities clashed the entire season, and ultimately made it very hard to play together on the court as a team. This is something I think needs to be worked on for next season, so that our team can be successful. Practicing everyday for up to two hours when we did not have games, and when we did have games spending five hours on the bus to get there and back, the dedication was there we just did not put our talents to good use at the end of the day. So now the question I ask myself is, what needs to be changed to make next season successful? In what ways can I improve as an individual to make the season smoother, to help our team become a team and play as a team? These are thoughts ill have on my mind until next September when I step onto the court with my new team, and set the goal for ourselves to win a national championship.