Article By: Brian SmileyThe Paris District High School senior girls basketball team isn't going to finish at the top of the Brant County high school regular-season standings.
But for Panthers coach Dani Hawkins, the season is about more than wins and losses.
"We don't pretend we're as good as those teams," Hawkins said when talking about the teams at the top of the standings.
"We know they're better than us but (our) kids do go in with a positive attitude and they work hard.
"We talk about playing with pride and doing what we're capable of doing and working on the things we need to work on.
"I just think about the kids getting better individually and then getting better as a team."
That attitude has served Hawkins well during her 20-year coaching career and it has carried over to her players, who continue to take to the court. Although Hawkins carries the title of coach, she sees herself as more than that.
"I think of myself as a teacher of basketball as opposed to a coach," she said.
"I really don't even worry about what the other teams do. You know what, I don't even know most of the kids names on the other teams because we just focus on developing fundamentals, teaching good defensive positioning and I give them simple offences.
"We focus on improvement; what improvement have we made this game from last game?"
When Paris takes to the court, they usually have one or two players who have played club basketball somewhere. And that's tough when you're going against some other schools in the six-team league that can be filled with all-stars from the club level.
This season was more of the same for Hawkins in terms of the players she has on the team.
"I had what I typically have," she said of her 12-player roster.
"I had one kid who has played ball growing up, a handful of athletes and two kids who were brand new to the sport."
Hawkins has five returning seniors this season and just one, point guard Beth Stulen, was a starter last year. She also welcomed four junior graduates to the team, as well as German exchange student Anabel Kiraly and Bri Zekl, who played basketball in Grade 9 before taking a couple of seasons off.
Hawkins has leaned heavily on players such as forwards Spencer Coombe and Zeckl and guards Katie McPartlin and Meghan Edgar but the team uses Stulen to its advantage.
"Having a solid point guard, which we have, makes a huge difference," the coach said. "It allows us to establish an offensive set.
"Then I have a bunch of athletic kids who are willing to work hard."
Earlier this season, the team faced the fact that it was going to have to work harder than it expected.
"It was just a matter of getting them to commit to playing early on," said Hawkins.
"If we want to run this team then you have to get to practice. You can't just show up for games and play because we're so far behind already."
Hawkins, who gives every player the green light to shoot if they're square to the net and set, has been through some tough seasons but the kids always seem to want more.
"I had one season we were 0-17 and the kids asked to go into another tournament," she said.
The Paris coach has been pleased with her team's effort for almost every game this year.
"There's only been one game I've been frustrated with because we didn't play as well as we should be able to play," said Hawkins.
"We have played to our ability and we have progressively been getting better."
Retrieved From: http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2013/10/17/high-school-basketball-panthers-working-hard
