Girl’s Basketball Senior Night

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Mary Cummins

Last Monday night, the Carbondale Community High School girl’s basketball team celebrated their Seniors and the last home game of the 2020 season.

 

CCHS recognized Elaiyah Badger, Kate Crombar, Akira Custer, and Hannah Lowndes for their hard work by announcing their names and future plans before the game, against Salem, took place. Their underclassman teammates greeted the seniors with personalized gifts, posters with their pictures on it, and lots of balloons.

 

Kate described her mix of enthusiastic and downcast emotions as “surreal.” Her teammate, Hannah, was in agreement; describing it as “bittersweet.”

 

After reminiscing, Hannah believes her leadership and communication skills have shown tremendous growth over the past four years of playing basketball at the school. Kate feels being a member of the basketball team helped to develop skills, such as, “how to push through adversity and build relationships with teammates and coaches.” These are important skills to have as these senior girls will be heading off to college this fall.

 

Both girls gave substantial advice for the underclassmen girls who will be filling their shoes next season. Hannah advised her younger teammates to stay confident and loud on the court. Kate pointed out, “You’re not always going to like who you’re working with or what you’re doing. Keep pushing through and learn to fight through difficult times because it will make you a better person…” 

 

The Terriers kept this advice in mind as they fought to win the game on Monday night, after being down in the first three quarters. The girls pulled ahead in the fourth quarter and defeated Salem with a score of 39-35. 

 

The game was riveting for everyone in the gym; both the crowd and the players jumped with celebration after each point the Terriers earned. Kate added that the extra support from the energetic crowd and the girls on the bench was the little boost they needed to pull out the win.

 

The hard work these girls have put in and the skills that have developed over the years are paying off. Kate has signed to play softball at John A. Logan in the fall. Akira Custer is also pursuing sports in college as she signed to run track for SIU.