Tournaments prep teams for district play

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Carter Brock

Both the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams had their season come to a close in the playoffs on Friday. The boys fell to Mount Pleasant 64-63 and the girls lost to Mansfield Summit 50-27.

Kasey Harvey, Sports Editor

District 13-5A play is just around the corner for basketball and wrestling, with the teams taking part in tournaments since the beginning of November.

“I love how it is right now because kids play a lot of games in a short amount of time and it gives our guys a chance to get of the court and see what they have,” head boys basketball coach Stephen Friar said. “District gets prepared for two days at least before your next opponent. In tournament time, we don’t get a chance to do that so you really just see who you are without preparation. It gives us a chance to see our guys in different roles and see how they react to it.”

For the girls’ team, games such as Tuesday’s against top 6A team, Duncanville, and tournament help prepare them as they seek to become district champions for the 6th year in a row.

“It prepares us for what to expect,” junior Makenzi Glover said. “You get a good look at our offense and defense. I like how it is now because we had a really tough non-district schedule this year and I think that that’s really been good for us. We’ve gotten to play all these really competitive tough teams and I feel like once we get to districts it may be a little bit easier so it definitely has prepared us.”

For girls’ wrestling specifically, finding a challenging opponents are few in Texas.

“Tournaments give you practice and helps you know what competitions are around the area,” senior Martha Moore said. “For our district, there’s not really any big teams so districts isn’t as hard as region or state. I like having both of them mixed because you get to see people all around state. You get to wrestle people and see what teams are tough and what areas you need to work on. You learn from every match and then you figure out by watching film what you need to work on specifically in practice.”