Zero interest in zero period
Juniors decide playing varsity women’s basketball is too much
By Natalie Silver, HUB Staff Writer–
Over half of this year’s juniors who played basketball at Davis High their sophomore year did not try out for the varsity team this season.
As of now, there are only three juniors on the team, and one junior is currently doing a late tryout and does not have an official spot.
Junior Maya Lopez-Ichikawa is taking multiple Honors and AP classes, and quit because of the tremendous time commitment basketball requires and the fact that she is no longer passionate about the sport.
“It’s a crazy amount of time and definitely hard to balance with school, especially during junior year,” Lopez-Ichikawa said.
According to Lopez-Ichikawa, the team practices around 14 hours a week, each week including six two-hour training sessions and two one-hour zero periods.
Lopez-Ichikawa claims the sport is a year long commitment and is happy with her decision to not try out. “It’s nice that I have so much time for schoolwork while still being able to play a low-key sport like lacrosse, which is only a time commitment during the season,” Lopez-Ichikawa said.
Because Lopez-Ichikawa is not a “morning person” she is thrilled that she does not have a zero period commitment.
Lauren Robison, like Lopez-Ichikawa, quit basketball to focus on lacrosse. Robison was concerned that committing to basketball would be a waste of her time, because she does not want to play a sport she is not 100% dedicated to.
“With the newly-added zero periods,” Robison said, “you have to love it, not just like it.”
While both Robison and Lopez-Ichikawa juggled two sports in previous years, they both agree that it would be overwhelming and exhausting to continue that trend.
“It is a nice break to have more time for academics and for me, one sport is time consuming enough,” Robison said.
Caitlin Mazzoleni, a sophomore on varsity, recognizes that next year will be a big step up from sophomore year. However, because basketball is Mazzoleni’s love, she will continue to hoop for Davis High next year.
“I will definitely play,” Mazzoleni said, “but I will just have to be very strict with myself about time management so that I can maintain my grades.”
Despite the fact that her team lost many of its players, Mazzoleni is confident in its potential and strength. According to Mazzoleni, the team is better than it was last year and with hard work it could make playoffs.
