With fall sports over, winter sports are coming to New Providence.

Girls basketball is already preparing for their first game on December 15th. 

The captains on the team are Meghan Lamanna, Grace Kelly and Megan Slattery. All of the captains are seniors, and have played basketball together since grade school, including four years on varsity.

Lamanna plays basketball as her main sport, and has just committed to Scranton to continue her basketball career. She is the highest scorer on the team at the moment,  achieving 1000 points as a junior last season. 

Lamanna says her main priority as captain is “to lead the team by encouraging everyone to work hard to be the best they can be, and also work together so we can play five strong in game situations all the time.”

Kelly is a three sport varsity athlete, but plays basketball as her main sport. She also plays soccer and lacrosse. This is also her second year being captain.

Kelly said, “I plan to lead my team as a captain by keeping everyone in the game. I want to try my best to keep our team focused in the games and not on any bad calls by refs.”

Slattery is a two sport varsity athlete, playing soccer and basketball. She is most excited to be back with the team and on the court after a great season last year: “Our main goal is working towards winning the county finals and state championship after a lot of hard work and time put in now and during the season.”

Coach Clint Pazdera, head coach for the girls basketball team and says that the goals of the team this year are the same as every season: “Win the conference, win the county tournament, and win the state tournament. Last year we were able to accomplish two of those goals. This year we would like to build on our success from last season.”

Pazdera said they have a challenging schedule this year, but he also said, “We play some really tough teams to get us the experience we need when it comes to state tournament time.  We are looking forward to the challenges that will bring us and how it will make us stronger and ready to play the tougher teams in our section”. 

Kelly agreed. She said “winning the county championship was the best feeling and I want to try and get it again.” 

The captains and the coaches are working hard to accomplish these goals this season. They’re already hard at work with practices and open gym times to start preparing for this year. 

They all agree that in addition to so much work and practice to prepare, one of the contributors to their success is the student section. 

“The student section definitely impacts our team and game experiences. It gave us so much excitement and energy in a game. It helps interfere with the other team and give us the confidence to take risks to do what it takes to win,” said Kelly.

Pazdera agreed: “Our team thrives off of a packed student section. If you look at all the games we played last year in front of big crowds, we did not disappoint. We feed off of their energy and love it when the student section is all in supporting our team”.