The girls’ JV B team hosted Marian for an officiated scrimmage to knock the rust off after a ten-day break. Many of the girls worked a basketball clinic during the break as well, and the team looks like it’s finally getting healthy after a challenging first half to the season. Carmen Cavataio, Sarah Kesto, and Noelle Apahidean are close to returning to action; Vivian Luo may be a little longer but is finding ways to make her presence felt. For the scrimmage, she took pictures while dressed in a cow costume. Said teammate Arianna Saracevic, “I truly have nothing bad to say about Vivian, she lights up a room with her personality. She knows how to pick the team up in our lows and can make us laugh without even trying. I’m beyond grateful that I gained a friendship with her this season.” Added Coach Gleason, “Vivian is as nice a person and as good a teammate as anyone I have ever met, and I can categorically state that she has the best jump shot of any player I have ever had in a cow suit.” The players enjoyed the three-day basketball clinic, which served as a fund raiser for the program as well as an opportunity to work with the younger players in the community, many of whom, it is hoped, will someday play at Athens. Emily Cousino echoed the feeling of all the players in describing how fun the experience was and how an event where you were helping people was much better than the traditional fund raiser. “My favorite parts were how the kids were excited to work with high school players as coaches and were super excited whenever we did a drill and their shots went in.” Maryana Mansour agreed. “The kids really warmed to the coaches by the end. My favorite part was when the coaches joined in for a game of Lightning, and they got mad at us if we made our first shot.” In regard to the scrimmage play, Arianna thought it went well, “[It] was a good learning experience that we benefited from in terms of trying new things.” The Lady RedHawks experimented with a new offense to go with the Motion sets that they used throughout the first part of the season. Coach Gleason agreed, “The Marian coach (Andy Guffey) was complimentary afterward, which is always nice. Our 9th graders have played together quite a bit, and it shows in their communication and in how they figure things out on their own. The offense we were trying, the girls had only seen on paper and worked on once in practice, and I think they still made a decent show of it. I’m just trying to challenge them to see how much they can take on. They’re a fun group to work with.”