This winter there have been ways made to help bring girls from Mechanic Falls, Minot, and Poland all together as one. The two men who decided to start this are Andrew Morong, girls’ basketball coach at Poland Regional High School, and his father, Tom Morong, former coach at Morse High School. It started this year and has definitely sprung into action. The idea was to bring girls in grades 6-8 together to be on two basketball travel teams. One team, made up of sixth and seventh graders, while the other made up of girls in seventh and eighth grade. I am on the team and absolutely love it. From practices to games, I believe that every teammate is always having fun. Even though at times we may get discouraged with ourselves, such as from missing a few passes, we later realize that it is just a game, just for fun, and we are all in this together.

We, as a team, are growing and we have come to work well together. Our first tournament may not have gone as we hoped or planned, but it was our very first time playing together and I think as a team we learned a lot from each other. Game after game went by and we eventually ended the weekend with a great game. We scored a ‘W’ and were so proud of ourselves. We are still working very hard and pushing ourselves until the end, anxious to see what we as individuals and as a team will look like in the end.

We couldn’t have done any of this without our coaches though. They are so thoughtful and considerate and we owe it all to them! I want to thank them so much for just encouraging us to keep going even when our heads were down. After a tournament, we receive emails from our coaches that list us as players individually and a special compliment next to our name. Coach Morong has already given us nicknames, mine being Gibby. Anyone can truly see the connection we as teammates have with our coaches. But we are not only teammates, we are friends. These friendships made now will be ones that will last in High School. Speaking from my own point of view, I would like to say this, “Even when I was so discouraged and had no faith in myself, you as coaches did. Thanks.”