As the basketball season nears its end for most teams, the Lady Bulldogs are in full drive. After working, fighting, winning, losing and striving for greatness, the Girls’ Basketball team continue to make Freedom history by finding themselves in a playoff position.

“The first time we made it, we lost in the first round, and the second, we made it to the second round. I am hoping that we can make it to the third round,” Senior Mia Vogel said.

Working through the heartbreaking losses and injuries has paid off for the team, as a whole, while pushing them for success. Through it all, they never let this bring them down.

For some, even as freshmen, this isn’t their first go around with playoffs, but it carries just as much weight.
“[Making playoffs] means we are keeping the tradition going for the soccer and basketball [teams] having said that we made it to playoffs for soccer and basketball last year, and we’re adding extra help to both teams,” Freshman Chloe Keller said.

Playoffs being a major accomplishment for everyone, the weight of that isn’t the same for all of the players. Before this can happen, four seniors would have to play their last home game as a bulldog. On Feb. 8, the girls took the court for senior night. They outscored Lincoln Park 48 to 37, the team ended their regular season with a bang.

For these girls, the upcoming playoff games will be the last games they will ever play in the red and white Freedom uniform that they’ve spent the last four years in. Even though great things have happened while wearing the school colors, it’s still bittersweet to think about playing in the last game of one’s high school career.

“It was really sad. All I thought about was that I had to play really hard and leave everything that I had on the court,” Vogel said.

As the season winds down, the girls will need to begin preparations for the upcoming season. Though the seniors will be gone and moving onto bigger and better things, the team and what they work and stand for will continue to flourish.

“I think it will be tough next year, because one of our juniors [will have] to step up and lead the team, but we will have some girls coming up next year that can hopefully put an impact on the team,” Keller said.
“[I hope] that they work hard and build from the foundation that we left for them. I know that they can do it,” Vogel said.