If you’re a member of our Oark Hornet Family, then you are well aware of the excitement that surrounds basketball season around here! Our kids look forward to it. Many claim it’s their favorite time of the year because our Booster Club and students are so excited for the season, they collaborated and came up with dress up themes for all of the home games. Our Art Club students have contributed by working on run out signs for all of our home games. Our Elementary students have been excitedly preparing to cheer for our basketball teams through Pep Club. The spirit and enthusiasm for basketball season is a campus wide theme… it’s contagious! We LOVE basketball season!!!
We are excited to release the basketball schedule for this season with you all today and to share quotes from some of our athletes and staff about the upcoming season.
Coach Upton has been teaching for 22 years and coaching basketball for 18 years. He has a passion for the sport and is excited to share his love for the game with our students. Coach Upton had this to say about the upcoming season, “The kids have been working hard in practice and we are looking forward to the start of basketball season! We hope to see you all at games cheering us on!”
We interviewed Destany Fields about the upcoming season. Fields is a senior this year and she is actually the only senior girl basketball player this season. She is a strong leader on the court and is always helping keep a positive mentality for her team with her encouragement, light hearted banter, and flexibility on the court. She said, “In Elementary school, I joined Peewee Basketball as soon as I could. Watching my older cousins play made me want to play. After joining I started to enjoy the game. I have pretty much been playing ever since. Playing in high school was challenging because each year we had a new coach which meant new plays and drills. However, this year I think we have a great coach in Coach Upton!”
Fields also said, “The reason I love basketball is the teamwork! I enjoy playing with the other girls. This year is the first and only year I get to play with my sister on the same team which I’m super excited about. I’m also excited about Coach Upton and what our team can accomplish this season.”
Coach Upton has been holding open gyms for our athletes four days a week. He has been dedicating a lot of his time and energy working with our students and going above and beyond supporting them. Mr. Sims Terry, a long time supporter and volunteer with our athletic programs, said, “Coach Upton has brought a new sense of purpose and drive to the basketball program. I am pumped for this season!”
We also interviewed one of the senior boy athletes, Max Ruffaner. Max is a junior this year and hasn’t been playing his whole life, but he absolutely fell in love with basketball these last two years. As a new basketball player, Max could’ve easily fallen behind or been lost out there. However, Max has put in the work and has been dedicated to improving his skills and basketball IQ. He has become quite a force on the court.
Max had this to say about the upcoming season, “I’d say we’ve got everything we need to win. I’m most excited about the actual games because I can’t say there is anything more fun than to play a game of basketball competitively. Seeing as how my first year was last year, I can definitely see how it improved myself and the people I play and hang out with as well- we all get along really well, and I’d like to say part of it is because most of us play on the basketball team together!”
Max is known to be one of the “goofballs” on the team according to his teammates, so it was definitely not surprising when Max had this to add in his interview, “I’d like to add that having a bacon cheeseburger from the Oark Store really pumps me up for our practices!”
He’s not wrong! The Oark Store food is a legendary game day fuel around here. For years athletes have walked down the road to the historic store to enjoy a delicious meal and receive encouragement from the owners. The Oark Store is always super supportive of our ball players, and we appreciate them so much.
Hornet fans - we hope to see you soon at our upcoming home games! We hope you enjoy our pictures in the collage taken by Oark Yearbook Crew! They'll be taking photos all season and these will be uploaded to our Oark Hornet Athletics Facebook page!
Check out the ball schedule:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eGIB3KaicsS6MD4us-kyxSBVKLKYZkhKLy0V9C3mVmc/edit?usp=sharing
We hope you’ll join our students and staff in decking out for our Dress Up Days to show our school spirit and support for our ball players.
Dress Up days:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14BGZ8MMJW2Wb14VSKXZtJnzvPCYv_v_L/view?usp=sharing