When cooking to make a good apple pie for a pie contest, you must have the right ingredients that not only make the pie delicious and first-place worthy, but also work well with each other. Similarly, to have a good basketball team, coaches don’t just look for players who are talented enough to get the win; they look for players who are able to work well together on and off the court.
What comes to mind when you think of championship-quality teams? Determination and effort rise to the top. A successful girls’ basketball team is built on players who are mentally tough and willing to work even when things get difficult. Setting goals for yourself and having a mindset that allows you to be determined enough to reach those goals is an important factor in a good team.
“I think what motivates me is reminding myself about the goals I have and how hard I have already worked to get to where I am,” Kayla Stidham says.
Mental toughness also comes from trusting your coaches and teammates to guide you in reaching your goals. Basketball almost forces you to trust your team because everyone has to work together in order to be successful.
“It’s taught me how to be disciplined in a lot of aspects of my life and how to put my trust in other people,” Kennedy Holams says.
Leadership is another key ingredient in having a successful team. Great teams don’t always rely solely on coaches to lead them; they rely on players to step up when needed.
“I try to lead by example by always doing the little things and giving 100% all the time,” Kennedy says.
A strong team culture and chemistry are what make a group of players feel like a family. Doing things off the court helps build trust and makes on-the-court communication and support much stronger.
“We do lots of team bonding — lots of eating, hanging out, and doing other things off the court,” Helena Kiely says.
When players build strong team chemistry and truly understand and support one another, it makes their play on the court more unselfish and confident. Hyping each other up on the bench and celebrating together on the court helps continue to build that chemistry.
“It’s been one of the best years for our team chemistry,” Antonette Green says.
Every year the team changes, but the ingredients that make a successful team stay the same. Chemistry, effort, leadership, and culture all matter when building a championship-quality team.
“Whether you play or not, or you’re an underclassman or an upperclassman, we do a great job of including everybody and supporting one another,” Helena Kiely says.
