With squeaking shoes and heavy breaths, the Wilde Lake Girls JV Basketball team fought hard on the court this season, despite having just seven players.

The team had small numbers from day one, as very few people showed up for tryouts. “I selected the seven girls that I believed would work the hardest and wanted to be a part of turning the girls’ basketball program around,” said Coach Ryan Hudy.

The small size of the team often puts them at a disadvantage on the court against other teams. While other teams had multiple subs to play when the other players got tired, these girls had to continue to play despite being out of breath and exhausted.

Sophomore player Rachel Van Osdel recognized the challenges they faced as a team. “Five people play at a time, which only leaves two subs, so it is both physically and mentally difficult, so our endurance has to be really good,” she said. “But when our physical endurance stops, our mental endurance kicks in.”

Sophomore Alexa Mullican saw the disadvantages in practice as well. “It was harmful for us to have such a small team because we could never scrimmage in practice, so we could never try our offense on an actual defense. I think 10 would have been a nice number to have on the team to make scrimmages easier,” she said.

Although the small size of their team is physically taxing and puts them at a drawback, it has brought the team closer. “We were all closer because there weren’t that many of us, and there were not enough people for cliques to form,” said Mullican, who has played on teams with cliques before and believes that cliques take the fun out of the sport.

“We work well together, and we’re all friends,” said Van Osdel, who also thought that the smaller team came with some advantages on the court.

“Having a smaller team makes it easier to draw up plays and execute them because we know how to work as a team.”

Although they ended the season with a record of 1-16, the team sees their season as a positive one, where they got closer to their teammates and had fun together on the court.