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<\/p>\nLiv Byrnes and Emma Carr<\/p>\n
Staff Writers<\/p>\n
Photo courtesy of Angela Bussone<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019re one big family,\u201d said freshman Angela Bussone of the Jamesville-Dewitt High School Varsity Girls Basketball team, who have grown very close this season. The 21-2 team has come off of winning their sectional championship and their regional championship, beating both Franklin and Averill Park High Schools. They then advanced to the state semifinals where they won over Harborfields 44-30, but lost in the state championship to Pittsford Sutherland, 41-57. \u201cI was sad, but we were proud of our accomplishments,\u201d said senior Kara Gantos.<\/span><\/p>\n The two co-captains, junior Alyssa Robens and junior Maddy Frank, were both important players that lead the team.\u201cI love that the team looks up to us and listen to what we say but it\u2019s nice because we are not dictators and they can do what they want,\u201d says Robens. \u201cI know we have to set an example because we have such young players on the team and I have to be a good leader with my words and my actions,\u201d said Frank. News Channel 9 also recognized the captains importance and leadership and nominated them both for athlete of the week. \u201cIt was a great honor, and it was really great that we were nominated together because we are the co-captains,\u201d said Frank. \u201cWe both worked really hard and I\u2019m glad we were nominated together because there was no competition,\u201d said Robens. \u201cWhenever we are struggling they help us out,\u201d said Bussone of the duo. \u201cThey don\u2019t yell at me for making mistakes; they cheered for me no matter what,\u201d said eighth grader Kasey Vaughn. Sophomore Carly O\u2019Hern is another leader for the team, and scored 27 out of their 47 points in their sectional title game against Whitesboro High School. \u201cIt was awesome to be able to do that for my team,\u201d said O\u2019Hern. \u201cWhen we guard each other in practice, (O\u2019Hern) will push me around and help me use new techniques that I can use in the next game,\u201d said eighth grader Meg Hair.<\/span><\/p>\n The team not only has their leaders to help them stay on top, their coach, Rob Siechen, plays a big part in their wins. The whole team agrees that he is a huge motivator for the girls. \u201cBefore big games, he helps us scout the good players and learn their defense,\u201d said senior Kara Gantos, \u201cHe helped the guards and the posts every day during practice,\u201d said Robens. For the State semi-final game against Harborfields High School the team watched tapes and tried to gain an understanding for the personnel on the team, \u201cHe helped us practice really hard and stay focused,\u201d said Frank of coach Siechen. \u201cHe will always help me become a better player,\u201d said Hair. \u201cHe taught me to play like every game is my last game,\u201d said Vaughn. \u201cHe has helped me mentally a lot, so that I don’t get down on myself,\u201d said Bussone. \u201cHe sets a good example for the team and he is very strategy oriented which helps us make good decisions in games,\u201d said Frank. <\/p>\n This team made it to states, but they had some tough games to get there. They lost twice to AA teams, Nottingham High School and Fayetteville-Manlius High School. \u201cWe definitely could\u2019ve won. We were at an equal skill level, but our caliber was off,\u201d said Bussone. After coming off these two losses they won against another AA team, West Genesee High School, boosting their confidence level. \u201cWe think those two games were flukes, and we just wanted to put it behind us,\u201d said sophomore Melissa Murphy.<\/p>\n Throughout the season the team had individual goals and team goals. A common team goal was to make it to sectionals and maybe even states, which they achieved this past weekend. “I wanted to develop as a player and help lead the team which I think I\u2019ve accomplished both of those and anything else beyond that was icing on the cake. ,\u201d said Frank. The team also owes it\u2019s wins to their strong bond. \u201cThey\u2019re my favorite team yet,\u201d said Robens and she can\u2019t wait to play with the girls again next season. <\/span><\/p>\n They J-D basketball team maybe only losing two seniors, but this young team hopes to strive for states again next year. \u201cWe are definitely all looking forward to next year because we have a lot of talent and I think we will go far but the seniors will be missed greatly,\u201d said Bussone.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Liv Byrnes and Emma Carr Staff Writers Photo courtesy of Angela Bussone \u201cWe\u2019re one big family,\u201d said freshman Angela Bussone of the Jamesville-Dewitt High School Varsity Girls Basketball team, who have grown very close this season. The 21-2 team has come off of winning their sectional championship and their regional championship, beating both Franklin and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jdrampage.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}