Coming off of a tough loss to the Trojans of Gaithersburg last season in the playoffs, the Patriots are continuously working toward a winning season, filled with lots of fun on and off of the court. To help the team prepare for the start of the regular season, they played in a total of three scrimmages, and also participated in a Play Day, in which they played against other schools from Montgomery County, as well as schools from other counties in Maryland.
On Nov. 21, the team traveled to Damascus to partake in a scrimmage against the Hornets. The Patriots did not play to their full potential, as they ended up losing the scrimmage. Even though the final team rosters were just put out a few days before this scrimmage, the Patriots did not play the game that Coach Maggie Dyer was expecting from them. “We came out very flat, we did not run any of our plays, but for sure, we do have good potential for the upcoming scrimmages and regular season games. Damascus was a good team to scrimmage against, as they seemed to look like they have been playing together for a while, and their team chemistry was really good. We always try to plan a scrimmage in preseason against Damascus, as we know that they will always be good and tough competition,” Dyer said.
These scrimmages are being used to get the girls on the team familiar with one another, so that once they get to their regular season games, they will look like a well-combined team, and play to their full potential.
The Play Day took place on Nov. 26, at River Hill High School in Howard County. Games went on throughout the day, with the Patriots playing a total of eight games, each lasting 11 minutes. The Patriots’ opponents included: Meade High School, Gaithersburg, Largo High School and River Hill High School.
On Nov. 28, the Patriots travelled to Oakdale High School in Frederick County for another scrimmage. Throughout this scrimmage, the refs were terrible, calling so many fouls on both teams, but the majority were called on the Patriots. There was no official final score to the game, as at the end of each quarter, the score reset. With the combination of the scores from all of the quarters, the Patriots lost a close battle. Just four days later, last Thursday, the Patriots battled against Blake in their last scrimmage before the start of the regular season. The Patriots came away from this scrimmage beating Blake 82-31. Blake was not the best competition, but for the Patriots, it was good practice to run their plays and work as a team to win.
This year’s team is comprised of five seniors, three juniors, three sophomores and two freshmen. Each of the seniors is hoping that this will be the best season yet. “I’m really excited for this season. We’ve all been working really hard and playing well together, and I’m looking forward to a great senior season,” senior Laura Darby said.
The Patriots travelled to face Northwest on Dec. 6 which is too late to be covered in this issue.

Jill Geline

Commons Editor