By Casey Welsh and Campbell Brown
Junior and 2014- 2015 basketball captain, Julie Hutchinson, speaks of the girls’ basketball season and her role as a leader. Hutchinson began playing nearly ten years ago and hasn’t stopped dominating at the guard position throughout each season. Within this season of girls’ basketball, she speaks of the role as a leader, but also the bonding experience created with a variety of girls on the team. “Our team was almost entirely new so I liked getting to know the younger girls and helping to rebuild our team. I definitely felt like I had a lot more impact on our team and in games than I did in past years. It was a great experience and I learned a lot.”
Hutchinson followed up upon being a leader, stating, “I like being a leader on the court because I can get everyone going and excited for the game. Off the court, I like being the one to get everyone bonding at the beginning of the season and having some of the younger players look up to you.” The team had a record of 4-16, but Hutchinson looked for the better in the situation thinking of their improvement for next year stating, “I think we will have a better record and grow even closer as a team because we already built a really strong foundation.”
When asked about the season’s difficulties, she describes, “We had a lot of injuries and having only 12 girls to begin with everyone really had to step up,”. There were a total of 5 sophomores and 4 freshman this year, along with their first varsity basketball experience they had to learn the plays which was a bit of a setback, however the girls worked hard regardless.”
She recalls back in the season, “One of my favorite moments of the season was our game against Hudson. We got a pretty good lead in the first few minutes and a lot of our non-starters got to get a lot of playing time. Everyone on our team had at least a point so that was a really exciting accomplishment.”
Hutchinson exemplified a role model figure within this team and season and expressed how she really enjoyed being able to be looked at as not only a basketball teammate, but friend. She consistently kept a positive attitude and is already awaiting what the upcoming season will bring.
