“We are a work in progress,” says head coach Grant Berendt. “We have improved a lot from the start of the season.“

Junior Allie Schubert has a similarly positive take: ”I feel pretty good. I mean, it’s different than last year, but I mean, that’s expected.”

Of course, one wonders how different. “It’s just not the same team,” Schubert amends. “We lost a big part of our offense, but we have more people coming up and showing what they can do.”

It’s no secret that freshmen are inexperienced, but it’s clear that they’re willing to put in the work and effort to match their upperclassmen.

“Any time players take that next step in their playing career, junior high to high school, there is a learning curve. We have 18 girls in the program and 11 of them are freshmen. We are excited about the future of this group,” Coach Berendt says.

If the freshmen are playing up now, that means they’ll just have that much extra experience in the future. Of course, they are still freshmen. They’re still new to playing this hard, as Schubert can attest to.

“You can't get mad about it like when people mess up. I mean, it’s freshmen. Everyone’s a freshman once, and you’re still learning how different practices are from middle school and how it’s different in general.”

All in all, MVHS can look forward to a stronger and stronger showing from our Lady Mountaineers.

The MVHS boys basketball team started off on the wrong foot but are beginning to make strides to become the best team they can be. With recent wins in the Stockton tournament, the team is starting to find hope.

This team has a lot of fight in it and is never one to give up. They’ve faced a lot of adversity this year but continue to push past and remain focused. Coach Mike Ray himself has said he’s “proud of our guys for how they’ve battled through roadblocks.” In their home game against Logan Rogersville, they came back from down 20+ points at the half and cut the lead to just 8 by the end of the game. They were never quite out of the game despite the huge deficit they faced.

They’ve also dealt with some injuries that have been difficult for the team to overcome. Sam Herbert broke his finger early in the season, which didn’t help during their rough start. Multiple guys have also had day-to-day injuries like rolled ankles and tweaked knees. Covid has affected the team as well. Top scorer Kai Brown caught covid this year, creating a big temporary loss that affected several early game performances.

Continuing to fight has helped them improve vastly. Even if they’re not winning games, they’re gaining experience. The focus right now is “getting better every day and becoming the best team we can be,” said Coach Ray. Setting small, realistic goals can be key to a growing team and help them improve even through losses.

Although they may not be winning the most right now, the future is bright for this team. With multiple underclassmen getting experience, like Jarret Zerby who is playing lots of varsity minutes as a freshman, this team will grow together for years to come.

Sophomore Landon Jones also said he’s “excited about freshman Hunter Conway.” It seems the team is collecting a nice group of up-and-coming talent and the future's looking bright. The growth the team will get this year will help them for multiple years to come. As long as this team keeps pushing the way they are they can achieve some special things in the future.