The basketball court is about to be played on again as the Francis Howell North girls basketball season has started. With the start of every new season brings many new faces, brand new jerseys and other expenses that provide the North Knights the opportunity to compete at a high level of basketball. The money needed to cover these costs is brought in by a team fundraiser. Each player participates in it and for the past two years the team has been selling TJ’s Pizza to raise money.

“We started selling pizzas two years ago and it brought in a lot of money for the program so we just decided to stick with it,” senior and captain of the girls varsity basketball team Hannah Ermeling said. “It’s very simple and we sell them to family members, friends, neighbors or anyone that is willing to purchase them to help out.”

Ermeling is spending her final year on the team as the captain of the team, and in all four years on the team did some sort of fundraiser. The fundraiser takes place at the beginning of the season before any games have been played and within two weeks the players raise as much money as possible selling pizzas. The money was put to good use as it gave the team such things as brand new jerseys, multiple practice uniforms and other articles of clothing such as t-shirts and jackets. The media program had students that ran media days, filmed hype videos and created other forms of media that are displayed throughout the school and FHNtoday.com.

“We each have to sell a minimum of 45 pizzas,” freshman and newest member of the girls varsity basketball team Addie Butler said. “We can sell as many as we want to bring in extra money. It’s really cool to help out with the program so we can buy all these nice things that will help us in the season. The team this year is very good and we have a strong feeling that we can all be successful this season if we work hard and determination.”