Basketball Feature: Fairfield Lions
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
The current group of Fairfield returning players know this is one of their best chances to finish atop the Southern Hills League at season's end. The seniors who are in that group understand and realize this is their final opportunity to have the first-place trophy at the end-of-season awards banquet.
Returning to the Lions this season is a group of five athletes who want to succeed this season ... a group of players who know what they must do to gain those victories which lead to greater things.
The group being spoken about are seniors Quentin Williams, Bradley Clay and Elijah Carmean; and juniors Gage Montgomery and Blake Hildebrant.
Though some are staring their final year right in the face, the others know this team has been building and working for their goal for a few years now, and this could be the team that gets added to the banner in Grandle Gymnasium under the part that reads "league champions."
Before all the talk about future seasons and trophies, it is always good to see where players began their time on the basketball court.
"In third grade I began," Williams said. "My dad was always a big basketball player, and he taught me how to play, and I just started playing through him."
"When I was in the second grade, my dad started me in a YMCA league, and I've been playing since then," Montgomery said.
"I started in seventh and just had friends play and help me," Clay said.
"I was in the first grade playing on a team in East Clinton," Hildebrant said. "Myself and Ryan Bates and a couple guys from our school went over there on a team."
"I began in the third grade and started playing because that's what all my friends did, so I just joined in," Carmean said.
As mentioned earlier, the Lions have a very good chance to be successful on the court this winter as they look to be where they were two seasons ago, playing for a district title in Athens. Last season, though, they were part of an 11-10 team, and all five agreed they learned a lot from playing a lot of minutes last year.
They now know they are the ones who must lead the way.
"I embrace being a leader," Williams said. "It is honoring to know we are the ones that are expected to lead our team to victories."
"The feeling of being a leader and learning from our play last season is big for us this year," Montgomery said. "I just want to set a good example for the ones who are playing their first year with us."
Others agreed about being the leaders and accepting the role.
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"We just know more now, coming back for the second year in my case," Hildebrant said. "We know how to carry ourselves on the floor and how to support each other without getting each other angry. All the knowledge we have coming back will just help us this year."
"It's nice having underclassmen looking up to you," Carmean said. "We want to be good role models all the time, and we want to show the others how to carry themselves on and off the court."
With those lessons and acceptance of being the leaders the group knows they have to improve this season to obtain the goals they have for their team.
"We have to play more team-oriented," Williams said. "We have to support everyone and not get down on one another. If we come together as a team, then anything is possible."
"If we all continue to put in the hard work that we are capable of ... only we can stop ourselves," Montgomery said.
"The biggest thing we have to know and realize is this is a team effort. It's not about just one person, but everyone has to put in 110-percent effort to help the team," Clay said.
Hildebrant spoke about the team goals.
"This year, our goals are a lot higher, and we should do good things," he said. "But to do that, we have to come in every day at practice and work as hard as we can … if we do that, we should be able to accomplish our goals."
Carmean, too, spoke about the goals of the Lions.
"Like Blake said ... we have to work hard in practice," Carmean said. "Practice this year is key. If we can't practice hard, then we can't do well. If we do practice hard every day, then it will all show in games and during the season."
Again, the conversation came back to the experience they have and how playing at the varsity level has been.
"Playing varsity has allowed me to learn so many more things," Williams said. "It's allowed me to adapt and play at a higher level. Playing varsity has allowed me to gain certain traits to help out my teammates."
Montgomery last year started out at the JV level but worked his way to not only the varsity bench, but eventually to a starting role.
"It was strange a little last year for me," Montgomery said. "I was in JV, then was thrown to the varsity level, so everything was new to me. It was completely different, especially the speed of the game. It was hard to catch up at first, but now I'm prepared."
Clay and Carmean also spoke about how they learned to play at varsity last year.
"When I first started out last year, it was hard because it was faster, and everyone was more physical," Clay said. "This year we all have a year under our belt, we're all playing better and we'll be ready this time."
"Having a year under your belt, it makes you ready for the pace of the game and not to be caught off-guard when the season starts," Carmean said. "We know what to expect this year."
Returning to the Lions this season is a group of five athletes who want to succeed this season ... a group of players who know what they must do to gain those victories which lead to greater things.
The group being spoken about are seniors Quentin Williams, Bradley Clay and Elijah Carmean; and juniors Gage Montgomery and Blake Hildebrant.
Though some are staring their final year right in the face, the others know this team has been building and working for their goal for a few years now, and this could be the team that gets added to the banner in Grandle Gymnasium under the part that reads "league champions."
Before all the talk about future seasons and trophies, it is always good to see where players began their time on the basketball court.
"In third grade I began," Williams said. "My dad was always a big basketball player, and he taught me how to play, and I just started playing through him."
"When I was in the second grade, my dad started me in a YMCA league, and I've been playing since then," Montgomery said.
"I started in seventh and just had friends play and help me," Clay said.
"I was in the first grade playing on a team in East Clinton," Hildebrant said. "Myself and Ryan Bates and a couple guys from our school went over there on a team."
"I began in the third grade and started playing because that's what all my friends did, so I just joined in," Carmean said.
As mentioned earlier, the Lions have a very good chance to be successful on the court this winter as they look to be where they were two seasons ago, playing for a district title in Athens. Last season, though, they were part of an 11-10 team, and all five agreed they learned a lot from playing a lot of minutes last year.
They now know they are the ones who must lead the way.
"I embrace being a leader," Williams said. "It is honoring to know we are the ones that are expected to lead our team to victories."
"The feeling of being a leader and learning from our play last season is big for us this year," Montgomery said. "I just want to set a good example for the ones who are playing their first year with us."
Others agreed about being the leaders and accepting the role.
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"We just know more now, coming back for the second year in my case," Hildebrant said. "We know how to carry ourselves on the floor and how to support each other without getting each other angry. All the knowledge we have coming back will just help us this year."
"It's nice having underclassmen looking up to you," Carmean said. "We want to be good role models all the time, and we want to show the others how to carry themselves on and off the court."
With those lessons and acceptance of being the leaders the group knows they have to improve this season to obtain the goals they have for their team.
"We have to play more team-oriented," Williams said. "We have to support everyone and not get down on one another. If we come together as a team, then anything is possible."
"If we all continue to put in the hard work that we are capable of ... only we can stop ourselves," Montgomery said.
"The biggest thing we have to know and realize is this is a team effort. It's not about just one person, but everyone has to put in 110-percent effort to help the team," Clay said.
Hildebrant spoke about the team goals.
"This year, our goals are a lot higher, and we should do good things," he said. "But to do that, we have to come in every day at practice and work as hard as we can … if we do that, we should be able to accomplish our goals."
Carmean, too, spoke about the goals of the Lions.
"Like Blake said ... we have to work hard in practice," Carmean said. "Practice this year is key. If we can't practice hard, then we can't do well. If we do practice hard every day, then it will all show in games and during the season."
Again, the conversation came back to the experience they have and how playing at the varsity level has been.
"Playing varsity has allowed me to learn so many more things," Williams said. "It's allowed me to adapt and play at a higher level. Playing varsity has allowed me to gain certain traits to help out my teammates."
Montgomery last year started out at the JV level but worked his way to not only the varsity bench, but eventually to a starting role.
"It was strange a little last year for me," Montgomery said. "I was in JV, then was thrown to the varsity level, so everything was new to me. It was completely different, especially the speed of the game. It was hard to catch up at first, but now I'm prepared."
Clay and Carmean also spoke about how they learned to play at varsity last year.
"When I first started out last year, it was hard because it was faster, and everyone was more physical," Clay said. "This year we all have a year under our belt, we're all playing better and we'll be ready this time."
"Having a year under your belt, it makes you ready for the pace of the game and not to be caught off-guard when the season starts," Carmean said. "We know what to expect this year."