Opheim Seniors Brings Whole Community Together Over Basketball

The senior English class at Opheim School is only comprised of two seniors, Carrie Taylor and Boden Anderson, however the small yet motivated class decided to take on a whole school project to meet the requirements associated with their technical writing unit while at the same time share their love of basketball with the students of Opheim school.

"We chose basketball in hopes to relate to the elementary students. Both of us seniors like basketball and wanted to transfer some of our knowledge and passion into the younger generation," stated Taylor. With Taylor and Anderson as coaches, the school was split up into four groups: cheer squad, pre-kindergartners; managers, kindergarteners; players, students in grades one through six; with the older students, seventh through 12 graders, taking turns at manning the concession stand during the four scheduled games. "We contemplated including all the grades on the basketball teams but soon realized that grades below first grade definitely would've been too young. Seeing this, we still wanted to include the other elementary students in some way so we came up with roles for all of them," explained Taylor why the four groups were established.

The players held practice during their PE class time with the ball games occurring on Dec. 8, 14 and Jan. 12 and 19. The entire community of Opheim came out to support the student body in this project by attending the games and purchasing the concessions. Help was also provided in terms of volunteer referees, bookkeepers and shot clock runners. Anderson stated the atmosphere during the games were "vivid, the community loved to see the young children play," while Taylor explained "The bleachers were full during all the games, all the fans were full of team spirit and excited to watch their children play. It felt like more than a scrimmage to the players, the crowd did a good job of encouraging and supporting them."

Getting the project organized and into fruition, while meeting the requirements of their English class in addition to their other responsibilities, was not an easy feat for the two seniors. In addition to coaching the students, they had to form meetings, write a proposal for the project, write a grant to the Opheim Youth Organization for the basketball hoops, provide player evaluations, reflect on the process as well as other technical writing items. "This project allowed us to write reports rather than essays, which allowed us to use technical writing skills," explained Taylor.

In addition to their own course load, the seniors also had to attend the PE classes of the players in order for the team to work together come game days. "Having the opportunity to coach these students was priceless. The experience was great for both the players and coaches. Our scheduling worked out perfectly...the teachers were very helpful in making it work," said Taylor. Anderson echoed by stating, "We coached the kids for 30 minutes each day. They are a lot to deal with, I started to get worn out, but they are great ambitious ball players."

Reflecting upon the experience, there are a few things the seniors learned along the way. "I learned more than imaginable by coaching these students, not only about the players themselves but also about coaching techniques and student education. The only thing about this project I would change is to either not include the first graders or not include the sixth-graders. Imagine a set of data and you have two outliers – this is what both classes were. Having these outliers made it extremely difficult to combine the variety of skill levels and ages," stated Taylor while Anderson stated, "overall the project was a success. I enjoyed coaching, as a senior I don't ever have time to see the younger kids, so it was fun hanging out with them."

The seniors could not stress enough this project would not have been so successful if it wasn't for the school, students, teachers and community support. "We have received overwhelming praise from the community for hosting our project. Overall the project was a success," said Anderson.

"This project was constructed for the students to have fun with the sport that I love – I hope we achieved that goal. There were times during the project that I wished we hadn't gone through with it, but overall I'm happy we did. The best part of the project was watching some of the students' progress," said Taylor. "One of my favorite memories was watching a player that I thought would rather be a cheerleader become our leading scorer and most passionate about the game. There were some students that made it feel like we hit the jackpot, they were willing to listen, be a team player, try new things and work hard."

After graduation, Anderson hopes to become a pro skater in California, while Taylor plans to attend college on a basketball scholarship and to major in nursing. She admits though she also envisions coaching in the future, but this experience taught her she would much prefer coaching high schoolers.