Looking out onto the light wooden planks of the court, you can see five players in Kelly-green duking it out with the opposing team. They are the Blake Girls’ Basketball team.

Students attending the BGB games have become accustomed to seeing underclassmen play, especially due to the fact that the team only has three upperclassmen, senior leaders Olivia Flemming ‘16 and Jaime Salone ‘16 and junior Nia Harris ‘17.

The team got off to the wrong start this year, losing two starters due to injuries for the first three weeks of the season. But aware of the rising underclassmen, Flemming explains how the team is “in great hands, [especially] with Coach Lund sticking around, the program is going to be incredible”.

Talking with the rest of the team, that positive attitude became apparent of all the players. Harris exclaims, “we’ve improved a lot this year. We’re playing hard, and it’s been tough but we play together as a team and we have each other’s back.” Flemming continued this thought, explaining her role as captain is “just trying to keep up the positive attitude even in times of adversity.”

Salone had similar words, complementing the hard work the freshman have been putting in this year, “we all work hard for each other.”

Both Harris and Salone expressed sentiment that the work that the freshmen on the team have put in is second to none. Harris exclaimed that “our freshmen work their asses off,” which was furthered by Salone’s comments on seeing Sara Gregor ‘19 “shoot before and after practice on Saturdays” and Morgan Phillips ‘19 “working on [getting faster] and being quick off her feet.”

Through the work the freshmen and the rest of the team has put in, Salone has no doubt that the freshmen will be able to step up and lead the team to more victories.

Freshman Robbie Grace ‘19 is already thinking about the coming years: “we have to work hard, no matter what, especially on defense because our offense comes from [how we play] on defense. I’m excited to play next year with [this team].”

With half a dozen games left in the season, the team is aiming for their first sections win, and with their roster back at full strength the team is confident they can accomplish this goal.