Potomac Pioneer girls bring strength to the court

POTOMAC - "One of the greatest strengths that I saw was the support the girls gave to each other continually through the whole season," said Potomac Pioneers Head Coach Christi Taillefer about the team this year.

This year there were 13 girls that played for the Pioneers. It was a young team with two eighth graders, four seventh graders, four sixth graders and three fifth graders.

The coaches and players felt the season went pretty well. It was a season of many firsts, for the coaches and some players including the fifth graders.

"It was definitely a learning process for me, being my first season ever coaching basketball," Taillefer said.

In addition to Taillefer, assistant coaches included Jessie Salter, Gary Flomer, Ashley Olsen and Bowen Olson. Taillefer said she could not have done it without all of the assistant coaches, especially Salter.

With a need for fundamentals, the skill level of the other teams and having a small team playing against other teams was hard at times. The Pioneers won two games, both against DeSmet Elementary School.

"Specifically for the girls, I think it was a challenging season," Taillefer said. And perseverance won in the end. The team was not afraid to be aggressive during games and were very encouraging to each other no matter how good or bad the games were, she said.

Taillefer enjoyed all of the aspects of coaching but specifically enjoyed being able to see progress within the team skill level. Taillefer is also a teacher at Potomac along with Olsen, so spending time with the girls outside of academics was special to both.

Taillefer said they met their team goals for the year of having fun, learning how to play basketball and working as a team with good communication. She added the girls each brought individual strengths to the season as well.