The Bucks Centurion Women’s Basketball team’s season has been cancelled.
Emails have been going out to try and interest people, and the coach and team members have tried recruiting people as well; however, the fact is that there are just not enough players to form a Women’s Basketball team this season at Bucks.
On Wednesday, Nov. 4, the decision was made to cancel the season.
The Women’s Basketball coach, Lori Sullivan, said, “This was a complete surprise to me, but due to various last- minute conflict the players had to cut basketball,” and so they had to cut the season.
She clarified that the issue was not a lack of interest but rather prospective player’s injuries and conflicting schedules. She went on to say she was “thankful the girls were honest. I value the honesty of the girls, so it is what it is.”
Naomi Thompson, 19, who was planning on being a part of the team this year, said, “the coach has been trying to recruit girls since fall sports have ended.” She has even been trying to recruit the fall volleyball players and soccer players, “but it’s just not their thing.”
This would have been Thompson’s first year playing basketball for the Centurions, but she said, “I was really upset that the season was cancelled because this is the first season I will not be playing basketball since I was 4 years old. Also, basketball gets me in shape.”
She said that only three women, including herself, ended up coming out to practices and joining, but there needs to be a total of five players for them to be considered a real basketball team.
She said they thought of possibly “moving down to a club team so that we would not have to forfeit the season, but if we do that, then it’s too hard to go back up to NJCAA Division III.”
For next year, Thompson encouraged students at Bucks or coming into Bucks to “make sure you get your friends to come out next time so that we can actually have a season.” She did say, however, that for this season it is too late.
To encourage potential newcomers, she says that “playing a Division III sport is a great opportunity for anyone because it builds their character, they make new friendships, and it looks good for prospective colleges. Plus, it gets you in shape.”
In preparing for next year, Coach Sullivan and her assistant coach, Fredrick Hilliard, are going to “meet up with a game plan to come up with a strategy so that this doesn’t happen again.”
Although she is discouraged, she has hope: “There are seniors who have reached out to me for next year.”
Coach Sullivan added, “It is very disheartening to me and to my assistant coach, Fredrick Hilliard, because we want to support Bucks and we cannot do it at this level. That is the first thing we want to do is support Bucks.”