Scoring in Strafford

Fair Grove’s Middle School Boys Basketball team traveled to the Strafford Indians’ basketball tournament on January 19th and 22nd.

The Middle School Boys Basketball team ramped their season back up after not playing for nearly a month. Coach Roepke expressed how the boys hadn’t played together as a team due to winter break. This break left only a week for the boys to change and adapt their strategies to better themselves going into the three games. “This week allowed us to get back into shape and fix a few issues going into the tournament. Our expectations as coaches are to go out and play our best 3 games of the year next week,” stated Roepke.

The Middle School Eagles played a collection of local teams including Logan Rogersville, Clever, Willard, and Strafford. Both A and B teams finished strong after the two-day competition. The A team capped the tournament off with 3 wins and 1 loss. The A team defeated the Willard, Strafford and Clever Teams. While the B team finished with an even 2 wins and 2 losses taking down both the Willard and Strafford teams. Kauffman expressed his thoughts about the upcoming season after the tournament, “It’s hard to tell honestly. We’re playing good ball now, but I think we will play our best ball after the tournament.”

With any successful sports team, practice is required to better equip the team for what each new team brings to the table. Coach Kauffman explained how he and Roepke assured that the boys knew their offensive and defensive sets to run at the tournament. The boys, knowing their forms better than before, set them up for even more success later on in the season. With this season being as successful as it has been thus far for both teams, Coach Kauffman expressed his gratitude toward this season, “Really well! I believe that we are continuing to get better as the year goes on. All of the players are buying in and are very coachable.”

Now for both the A and B teams they have completed another tournament making this an even more fruitful season. After the tournament both teams now have a 6 to 3 win loss ratio. The 2021-2022 basketball season is coming to a close with the last game scheduled for February 3rd at Reeds Spring. With this tournament under their belt the teams are now back to practicing and working toward making an even more successful season.