The girls basketball kick off their journey with their first game on December fourth. According to Stephen Crile, It has been a good start of the year for the Alliance High School girls’ basketball team. Crile was inspired to coach the girls because of his high school experience in playing sports and being taught by his own coaches. He stated, “When I was in high school I had a lot of great role models as coaches. My football coach [and] my basketball coach really instilled some great values into me.” Crile had been coaching for eight years, but is currently starting his first year as a head coach at AHS. He went to college to be a physical education teacher, and later got a masters’ degree in special education. Crile is hoping that eventually, he will be able to be a principal.
Preparing for the season took a lot of work. Crile reviewed over films of the girls to help them with form and learn what concepts they needed to work on. Learning from past experiences was very helpful for Crile. The other coaches he had experience with in the past, helped Crile increase his understanding of what could be taught to help the girls’ basketball team.
A freshman team member, Miah Peters-Marsteller, stated that some of the girls attended summer practice. Marsteller enjoyed putting in as much work as possible to improve her basketball skills. Junior, Kenna Montes, also mentioned they attended off-season practice in the summer. Montes said practicing off-season helped tremendously with ball-handling and shot skills.
Crile enjoys being able to show the girls new things and is excited to see how much the girls will improve throughout the year. Montes’s favorite thing about basketball is seeing how aggressive the ladies are and how hard they push one another. Marsteller also added that her teammates are very helpful and help improve her to be her best self.