It has been over 20 years since Melcher-Dallas and Pleasantville have played each other in basketball, but this coming Tuesday, the 2012-13 season will bring both schools back together in the same building to open up the boys’ basketball season in a girls/boys doubleheader. The two schools are separated by just around 12 miles, but because of the size of each of the schools, they haven’t been able to play each other in basketball in quite some time. On the Trojans’ side of things, two members of the boys’ squad give their input on what it’s going to take to beat a team they’ve never seen before.
“We’re not as tall as last year, but we’ve got a lot of speed,” sophomore Hagen Fouch said. “We’re going to be using our speed pretty wisely.
“Well, we’re playing Melcher, and everybody knows we can’t lose to Melcher,” junior Matt Prill jokingly said. “It’s just going to propel us to go ahead and get the victory and bring it on home.”
Senior Maddie Harken said the key to winning on the girls’ side over the Saints will be keeping their chins up if and when things go bad.
“We’re just going to have to stay positive throughout the entire team and not get down,” Harken said. “We have a lot of speed and not very much height, but if we push the ball and stay on top of it, we’ll definitely have a victory.”
For Melcher-Dallas, they saw a sneak peak of the Trojans in the jamboree earlier in the week, and they are relying on their experience to give them the edge in Tuesday night’s battle.
“We saw them play at Martensdale and we noticed they’re a really good team, a really good ball-handling team,” sophomore Chase Wetterling said. “They’ve got a lot of talent in their athletes, but we’ve got a lot of experience on our side, and I hope that can be the edge that gives us the win.”
“We have all of our starters, they all played varsity last year,” junior Troy Lee said. “We don’t really have anybody that’s inexperienced. I think the key is just to stay hyped from the first quarter all the way through the fourth, and play some good defense.”
Senior Lexi Crozier wants to see her girls bounce back after a tough loss to Wayne to start the year.
“I think we just need to learn how to handle the ball a little bit better, get our jitters out of the way,” Crozier said. “I definitely think we’re going to come back against Pleasantville and step it up. Our defense is going to be there on Tuesday. As long as we can get the ball down the floor and get into our inside shooters, we’re going to be good.”
Tuesday’s game is being dubbed “The Hunger Game,” which is a contest between both schools to see who can raise the most food for area food shelves. If you haven’t donated food to either school, you can still do that up until halftime of the girls’ game on Tuesday at Melcher-Dallas. The Pleasantville and Melcher-Dallas girls’ game will tip-off at 6:15 p.m.