The season comes to a close, the lights dim, and the court is silent, once again. Although the excitement is gone from the court, the friendships and memories continue far beyond the last game.

Senior Kaitlin Nolan is going to greatly miss the experiences with her team as she graduates, but she will look on the memories fondly, knowing she will always have friends to come back to.

“I know some of the girls I wasn’t that close of friends with last year I’m a lot closer with now, and some of the freshmen I would do anything for. There’s going to be long term friendships,” Nolan said.

Sophomore Makenzie Schierding was incredibly happy with the season, and more than proud of her team.

“I think we had really good team chemistry, and as the season went on, and towards the end of the season we just hit our peak, it was really good,” Schierding said.

The season was extremely successful, with a time period where the girls were undefeated. They had a six game winning streak and carried their own throughout the season.

The beginning of the success was debatable, but Nolan had a major place pinpointed for where it all started.

“We beat West, and we haven’t beat them since my 8th grade or freshman year. Ever since we beat them, I feel like that’s when our winning streak started coming together, because we were like ‘okay we can do this, we can beat them,’” Nolan said.

Although basketball is seen as a sport here at Francis Howell Central, the lady spartans see it more of a family.

“There was 5 of us seniors, 4 of us have been playing together since middle school, some of us elementary school, so we all just made sure that the team stayed together,” Nolan said. “ We had a new girl this year, I took her under my wing and everything, and she’s a junior, she’s my best friend.”

Schierding had the same perspective.

“I think we always just believe in each other and we have each other’s back,” Schierding said.

Within every family there are memories that hold the utmost meaning and traditions that symbolize their true togetherness, and the girls’ basketball team is no exception.

“Before games we’ll always pray in the locker room, and we’ll have music playing. We always listen to the same music, not each individual has their own music, because to me, if you have your own music, you’re not all on the same page; that way, if you all listen to the same music, you’re all on the same page, same tempo, speed.” Nolan said.

Overall, the team was successful in both stats and friendship.

“The amount of smiles that you saw from everyone… I’ve never seen my team so happy to be together,” Nolan said.