By Brittany Hilton

and Marissa Griswold

Monmouth Middle School

It is unbelievable that basketball has come to an end. There will be no more traveling to games and watching all the exciting action. Our team, the Monmouth A girls’ team, ended our season on a good note. From the start of the season many of us were not in shape and did not have that many skills. Daily practices and great coaching by Larry Baker as well as David Armstrong helped Monmouth become a strong and competitive team. We went through the whole season without losing one single game and also by becoming champions of the yearly basketball tournament in Jay. All of the players were so excited after going through the regular school season without losing a single game, we were 22-0.

Just recently the Monmouth Middle School was invited to play in the second annual Jay Jam tournament. The girls left the Jay courts after the final game of the tournament Sunday and took the championship home with them. We played a total of four games, staying in the winner’s bracket. On Saturday we played a great game against Boothbay, and we returned and played Mt. Blue, Our team had never seen a team as difficult as this. With a great offense and defense played by both teams, the game went into overtime with a score of 30-30. With a five-minute overtime, Monmouth decided it was time to take everything we had and make it to the next day.

By Sunday the girls were exhausted from their two excellent games played the day before. Monmouth was scheduled to play Rumford, also another strong team. At the beginning Monmouth wasn’t doing so well, but when fourth period came around they decided they should pull it together. In the fourth period with one minute left, they were eight points behind. All of a sudden we picked up our game with Moe Beaulieu’s two steals and shots, and Marissa Griswold’s five points made from foul shots. We pulled it together nicely. We won by three points. We had made it this far but still had one more game to play, against Rumford at 3:15 p.m. This time the MMS girls played our best from the beginning. The MMS girls won the final.

With playing such difficult teams, it was very rare that a nonstarter would come off the bench to play; we would like to thank those girls for a super season, and great team spirit. We would also like to congratulate Jill Armstrong, Katie Woodman, and Jenn Lola for their awesome passes down low, and their teamwork, Moe Beaulieu for her great aggressiveness and shots underneath, Marissa Griswold for her being able to draw a foul and make all other foul shots, and last Brittany Hilton for her outstanding defense played. We would also like to congratulate all of the other teams that also played in the Jay Jam tournament.

The girls of the Monmouth Middle School would also like to again thank their coaches Mr. Baker and Mr. Armstrong, for their time and effort to help the girls become what they are today. Also big thanks to their managers Brittany Rogers and Brittany King, for being able to keep everything in line for the coaches and us.

The sixth graders are Maija Robbins, Sarah Albert, and Suzi Chick. The seventh graders are Bethany Neal and Jessie Gray. And finally the eighth graders Brittany Hilton, Jenn Lola, Jill Armstrong, Katie Woodman, Marissa Griswold, Moe Beaulieu and Sam Kaplan.