As the Fair Grove girls and boys basketball regular seasons have come to a close, coaches and players are preparing for their potential postseason runs.
The girls basketball team has had a high pressure season, seeing as they are the current defending state champions. Hannah Maxwell (12) shared, “We are a target this year because of our season last year and it would be nice to show people that it wasn’t just a fluke when we won state last year.”
The girls have had a winning season of 19-7 this year, ending the regular season with a win against Union. Although they couldn’t win every game as they had hoped, Coach Gary Greene believes that throughout the season the girls have fought hard for good wins against high level teams like Nixa.
Even though they have had solid wins under their belts heading into the postseason, Greene hopes for them to clean up their play. “My hope is that we can clean up our play and make sure we give ourselves the best chance to win in the postseason.” Greene also hopes for another state title.
Maxwell is feeling good about her team’s chances of heading back to the Final Four. “I feel like we have good chances again just going into it in a different way than we did last year because we have a different style of playing this year than last year,” she described.
The boys basketball team has had high expectations for their season. Head coach, Bryan Tucker, described the team’s goals. They wanted to win the Mid Lakes conference, win every home game, and win districts. The boys have so far clenched the Mid Lakes title and came just short of winning every home game by going 4-1 at home. Their overall record in the regular season was 20-6.
While the bar was set high for the boys at the beginning of the season, going into the postseason is no different. Nolen Geitz (11) has high hopes for his team heading into the playoffs. He stated, “I hope to see the team stay hot and continue to play good, and the expectation is to win a district championship first, and then we’ll go from there.”
Geitz also feels that his team has a good chance of lengthening their season past a district title. “We have a chance and can compete with just about any team so I have a good feeling about the postseason,” Geitz expressed.
Tucker has also been hoping for his team to “stay hot” as they are approaching the playoffs. Tucker voiced, “We are trying to get our rotation set and have everyone playing at their best going into the most important part of the season.”
The boy’s team also advanced to a district championship, beating Forsyth on Thursday, February 22. They played on Saturday, February 24, against Greenwood Laboratory School at Sparta High School and took a loss.
The girl’s team beat Springfield Catholic on Wednesday, February 21. On Friday, February 23, they beat Strafford, their rival school, and won the district championship. They beat Clever February 26th and are now advancing on to quarter-finals Friday, March 1st at Fair Grove High School.
