This November, the basketball season kicked off for both the girls and boys teams. The teams recently began the busy schedule of games and practices, with both having at least one win under their belt.

Additionally, the girls team welcomed a new coach, Karynda Dupree. Dupree has previously played, captained, and coached basketball and is grateful to have this opportunity with SHS. Although transitioning to a new coach can be hard, Dupree cites how supportive the atmosphere of the SHS has been. 

“The community of Shorewood has been very receptive to me throughout this transition,” Dupree said. “I’m very grateful for the opportunity to be able to support these young women in their lives.”

The basketball season will continue into late February or early March, but it could last longer if either team advances to regional or state championship games. 

This season has also come with the typical changes of high school sports, with seniors leaving and freshmen joining the varsity and junior varsity teams. While challenging, team members have described the transition as beneficial and a learning opportunity. 

Serinity Metcalfe, junior and captain of the girls varsity basketball team, was recently nominated for player of the week in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. According to Metcalfe the team is adapting to losing many of the members of the senior-heavy varsity team in the previous year. 

“[Playing as a team] has improved a lot over the season,” Metcalfe said. “This year I’m playing with a lot of younger girls. Last year we had all seniors so it was pretty advanced [and] we knew what we wanted. This year’s more like trying to keep that going.”

Metcalfe also describes her experience as a captain as rewarding, particularly when helping players new to the sport.

“I like seeing people who haven’t played before but are trying to learn,” Metcalfe said. “Getting them into a gym and seeing them trying as hard as you’re trying is cool, I like it a lot.”

As for the younger players, freshman Tenzin Pavlik described his experience joining boys junior varsity as welcoming, especially when getting to know older athletes. 

“There are a lot of older kids on our team and it’s nice to interact with new people and get to know them,” Pavlik said.

Despite their collaboration efforts, the boys team has also been experiencing challenges, which they hope to overcome as the season progresses.

“Our energy, defense, and communicating as a team on the court have all been challenges…But I know we can do better,” Pavlik said. 

On the other hand, the girls team is also working to overcome several challenges, such as undersizing and getting to know each other as players.

“Our biggest challenge is the fact that we are undersized compared to other teams, however we also have a lot of hustle, heart and effort,” Dupree said. “We have a couple girls who are relatively new to basketball, so the other biggest challenge has been that it’s all our first year together. We’re all trying to get to know each other, our systems and our identities.”

Despite these challenges, both teams also maintain the aim of working hard and improving throughout the season.

“Our team hopes to accomplish remaining together throughout the season…We just want to get better every single day,” Dupree said. “We also want to trust the process. We’re not focused on wins or losses, we just want to do our very best whether that’s in practice or in games.” 

Metcalfe shares this mentality, but outlined the girls team’s goals in terms of winning games

“Our goal is to win all the games in our conference,” Metcalfe said. “We’ve won all three games so far, so we have to keep up our winning streak.”

For the boys team, Pavlik describes that their main goal is to better themselves in all areas. 

“We really want to improve as players, win more games, and to become better as teammates,” Pavlik said.

Both Dupree and Pavlik encourage students and community members to come to games to support both teams.