Basketball, a very time-absorbing, mind-challenging sport, has very many athletes participate every year. Sophia Hatcher is being one of those athletes.

Sophia Hatcher, a freshman athlete here at Ames High School, participates in both track and basketball. She is a very kind, smart, and caring student as well. She is very open about how basketball has affected her life. 

“The most disappointing memory I’ve ever experienced in basketball was losing all of our games during our school season last year,” Sophia said. 

That season was very disappointing for Sophia.  “It almost wasn’t enjoyable anymore.” But she still is coming back for this season and is ready to start her high school basketball career. She doesn’t want to be done yet because before her 8th-grade season, Sophia had been playing basketball  for several years that had been pretty successful. 

Sophia started basketball in around 2nd or 3rd grade. “I started basketball because I thought it was what all the cool kids did, and I thought it looked really fun.” 

The sport of basketball takes up a lot of time and dedication in the lives of athletes like Sophia, whether it is playing in a tournament or game, practicing with the team, or practicing by themselves to get better. Using so much time in their lives for this sport can be exhausting for several reasons but also brings many good memories. Sophia shared that her favorite memories have been at tournaments and going to get food with the team after. Sophia is the type of person who sees everything in a positive way, so those positive memories override the negative ones. 

Sophia also shows her dedication as an athlete by the time and effort she puts into everything she participates in. It can be very difficult and stressful for someone, especially a teenager, to be in more than one sport. Because of them having to balance school, family, friends, and sports. 

“I  love doing multiple sports because it keeps me in shape, but it can be very challenging at times,” Sophia said.

The girl’s basketball season is about to start very soon, and it is very nerve-racking for some of the players, including Sophia. 

“I’m really nervous for this season because now we are in high school, and I don’t want to lose a lot like my team did last year.”

Ames girls basketball team went through a pretty rough season for both high school and middle school this past year.

From what Sophia and other players on the team have said, the students and staff of our school and the people of Ames have said that there is pretty high hopes for this season.