Dear Editor:
Congratulations to the Lady Patriots High School Basketball team for an astounding finish to the 2012-13 season! This team of amazing athletes set a new school record of 28-3, totally breaking the record they set last year of 23-5. The young women have shown what hard work, dedication and a strong commitment to teamwork could do.
The Lady Patriots are comprised of 19 girls from 9th through 12th grades. Although they are a young high school team playing together, each girl has proven to be a winner among themselves, as well as teams they play against for league standings. The team recently won the NJIC Liberty Division League Championship for the third consecutive year. They also excelled as they competed in the Hudson County Finals for the first time. The girls played hard, losing in double overtime against Lincoln High School, a strong team from Jersey City. The team also qualified for the state sectional finals for the second time in school history, losing to Bloomfield Tech by a close margin of four points, a feat they could be proud of. The Lady Patriots have consistently shown improvement with each season as they demonstrated by the final record of the season.
In addition to being a strong, confident team, the Lady Pats have the guidance of dedicated coaches to help lead them to victory. All of our young athletes in all sports share a unique advantage of playing on the town’s recreation programs since grammar school, where they learn core skills and competition. The Lady Patriots had the benefit of playing basketball together through recreation for several years before playing on the high school team together.
We are very proud of the girls’ basketball achievements and will continue to support the team as they strive to advance further in the next season.
Mike Gonnelli
Mayor