Coming into the season there was lots of pessimism surrounding how the team would overcome their spontaneous league change. However, as the season progressed the team developed into an ISAAC powerhouse.
By Colleen Cranna
The Field School Girls Varsity Basketball team has had an incredible season. Full of surprises and shocks, this team had to work overtime to prove themselves during a season in which many felt their future had already been decided for them.
The Potomac Valley Athletic Conference (PVAC) is a sports conference consisting of various smaller independent schools in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia region. However, it’s not the only conference for smaller schools in the area. The Independent Small Schools Athletic Conference (ISSAC) is also a league that these schools can play in, although the PVAC is seen as a more competitive conference. Just prior to the start of the 2022 Winter season for Field girls basketball, the team found out they would be playing in the ISSAC instead of the PVAC. Essentially, they discovered that their conference play had been decided for them before they even had a chance to play.
Sophomore center Laingley ‘24 described this as a “disheartening” piece of news, feeling like that decision was a reflection of the past girls basketball programs at Field, and not the team that they had this year. Despite this, and a rough start to the season, the team pushed onwards.
Coming into the season, the team had an interesting dynamic. With four seniors, four sophomores, 8 freshman, and no juniors, only two players on the team had previous experience playing high school basketball due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Clearly, this was a “rookie” team, but captains Fiona ‘22 and Sophia ‘22 didn’t let this impact the team dynamics and set strong examples and expectations for the rest of the team to follow.
Throughout the season there were exciting games– both wins and losses, but most of all, there were many opportunities to learn and get better. Laingley ‘24 reflected upon one game against Washington Latin as one of the team’s best games with aggressiveness and teamwork, even faced with frustrating calls, despite their loss in the end. The team evidently took this as a chance to get better as they rebounded with a comeback home win from a major deficit against rivals the Edmund Burke School. Playing multiple games a week was common for the team, but took its toll at times. The team played a tough Monday night game before having to play Friday night in a big win against Basic McLean on Senior Night. It was games like these, those gritty, and at times ugly, results that formed this team into who they are today.
Coming into the ISSAC playoffs, they were seeded as #2, an impressive seed for this new team. In the quarter finals they faced off with the French International School, coolly handling them in a 58-30 win. Their next challenge was facing an all too familiar team in the semi finals: Basis McLean. Nerves were high leading up to the game as they hadn’t expected to make it this far, but were looking forward to a second matchup with Basis McLean. Although they were playing a team they had already beaten before, they knew that they couldn’t let up their aggression and they needed to capitalize on their momentum. Basis McLean had made major improvements since Field’s Senior Night game, taking the lead in the first quarter and going into the second half. But we’ve seen this film before, Field doesn’t back down. In a massive comeback, Field advanced with a 38-30 win, ecstatically looking forward to the championship game later that week at the Lab School.
“I am really pumped because we have just worked so hard,” Sarah ‘24, Sophomore shooting guard on the team, spoke about the looming championship game, “the start of the season was a little rocky, but we’ve come so far, and we are ready.”
Although much adrenaline and excitement led into the championship game accompanied by the confidence of many strong performances throughout the season, the Field girls basketball team unfortunately fell short in the final- losing a close game 42-38 to the Siena School, the regular season champions of the ISSAC. Despite the dissatisfying final score and who had taken that championship banner home at the end of the game, Laingley ‘24 spoke that she could say with certainty, “Our blood, sweat, and tears had all been left on the court, we had given it our all this season”. Although this end to the season was evidently disappointing, praise and recognition for this rookie team is in order. This team has certainly made our school proud.
Co captains Fiona and Sophia ‘22. Photo Credit: CJ Hanauer
Sarah ‘24. Photo Credit: CJ Hanauer
Center Laingley ‘24. Photo Credit: CJ Hanauer