It’s the night of the varsity girls basketball game and fans are showing up to support the team for the big game, but right nextdoor in the small gym, another girls basketball team, the C-team, is playing as well.

C-Teams, across all of the sports, especially the ones at EHS, are generally the entry level team where any student, experienced or not, can come and learn the sport so that they can play competitively for their school.

The teams really make the sports accessible for players. Instead of having to find a club to play at these lower levels, it really is just an extension to school. It is all within the same community and they even practice at the school. Just like the high level Varsity and JV teams, they go to matches between other schools and compete.

Lindsay Fox, the C-Team Girls Basketball coach at EHS, explains the importance of being exposed to competitive play, “You learn every time you go down the court, and if one thing doesn’t work, we switch it up and it’s a big learning curve.”

It not only gives players a chance to play competitively, but the groundwork needed to know how to play the sport effectively is taught. Fox explained the importance of this in basketball  “You have to be able to run a play, but then you also have to have the fundamentals, without the fundamentals you can’t run a play, and without the plays, fundamentals go away, so you have to have both.”

Of course, rising the ranks to being better players and making the higher up teams such as Varsity is a goal for some of these players. It might seem like the Varsity team overshadows these lower teams, but all the teams contribute to each other and make an impact. Very regularly you will see scrimmages between them, and just the support given to each other helps.

“We get to see [the varsity team] and how they’re doing better, and we get to set goals and try to rise to that occasion so that one day, hopefully, that those C-Team players will get that chance.” Fox said.

No matter the skill level, sports build general skills that last a lifetime. It makes way for a chance to build relationships with teammates, and improve cooperation. But playing a sport in the High School levels also brings with the challenge of finding the balance between sports and academics.

“As a student athlete, you really have to find balance and I think that’s a good thing and a healthy thing for students to learn. You really have to organize what you’re doing, and find out what’s a priority, and what’s not a priority.” Fox explains from both a teacher and coach’s perspective.

Overall, all of the teams combine together to make a strong program in any sport. It gives players of all skill levels, from someone that has played a sport their entire life to someone who hasn’t. Mesh that together with the life skills that come from playing in any sport, C-Teams certainly fill their niche.