The varsity girls basketball season started on Tuesday, December 5, with a 46-38 loss to St. Charles High. Going forward, the Lady Knights hope to focus on the fundamentals to improve their game. The Lady Knights home opener will be Friday, December 15, against rivals Francis Howell Central. Dawn Hahn, assistant coach of the varsity team, talks about the team’s need to focus on the fundamentals, preparing for the season, and more.

Q: How did you prepare for this season?

A: It started in the spring and summer with two team camps, a camp here and a lot of time in open gyms, a lot of time talking. Coach Thompson and I met together for about three hours over the course of the offseason to start planning.

Q: Are there any team traditions?

A: Pink Ribbon game is a tradition for us, this is the tenth year for us. The lock-in we have started a tradition with the team. This is the third year. The girls spend a lot of time working or team building, team chemistry, and goal setting. We spend the night in the gym just watching movies, nothing basketball related just life-related.

Q: What game is your team looking forward to the most this season?

A: I think in my mind they are just looking forward to competing, being able to cheer each other on and see the best competition they can put out on the floor every night. I think they as a group take a lot of pride in their abilities to work together.

Q: What game do you feel will be the hardest for your team this season?

A: I think we have several just because of the mental approach we take. There’s always rivalry games and those big rivalries are always Howell Central and Howell.

Q: What is something that you’ve been working on in practice that you hope shows in your games?

A: Definitely an increase in fundamentals. No matter what offensive schemes you put in a game, if you can’t execute the fundamentals none of those things matter, so we have really been focusing on fundamentals and working together.

Q: Are there any players that have stood out to you so far through the first few weeks of practice that you feel will make a big impact on the team this year?

I would say there are no surprises. I would say that we have girls that are able right now because of the improvements made over the offseason that have stepped up and are going to be able to impact the game at a much faster level than what we thought was going to happen.

Q: How is this team different from ones in the past?

A: This team is very cohesive as far as they genuinely care for and about each other. With that, they care about their success as a group whereas I think in the past a few times the challenge for us has been to sacrifice individual glory or individual success and that is not the case for this team.

Q: What has been the most memorable moment of the season this far?

A: I would say the most memorable part of the season this far is how much the girls have grown in their trust, appreciation, and respect for each other.

Q: What are you looking forward to most for this year’s season?

A: I would like for the girls to enjoy playing with each other and at the end of the season look and see how far we have come. With a focus daily that we do improve each day and seeing the payoff in that in the end.

Q: Where do you hope your team will be at the end of the season?

A: I hope we are among the top in the conference schools. I hope that we are looked at as a team that has the potential to get deep into the district tournament. Be able to look back and say that the goals we set early, whether it be statistical goals or teamwork leadership goals, we can look back and say we have reached every single one.