Milan Girls Basketball Team Faced Hardship and Grew Together

After winning 20 games in the 2009-2010 season and winning the district championship, the Milan Big Reds girls' basketball had big shoes to fill. Unfortunately, they also graduated some of top scorers from the season too. This season’s version of Big Reds basketball was unable to repeat in the district tournament, but grew and learned together, according to their coach. They finished the season 2-18 overall, 0-14 in the Huron League.

“This year was full of loses, the loss of a great friend or two, the loss of my father, the loss of many games, but a win in dealing with that adversity. After a year like we had you might expect team fights, girls and or coaches who quit, and families looking at someone to blame, but we were far from that,” said head coach Jeff Scott.

The season started off with a 58-53 win against the Lincoln Railsplitters. The Lady Reds dropped the next two games (at Dundee and home against Tecumseh) before winning their second and final game of the season at Willow Run. 

The final 16 games were sometimes unpleasant, sometimes bitter, culminating in a 58-13 blowout loss to Ida in the opening round of the district tournament. The Big Reds had two one-point losses (one against Jefferson and one against Riverview), and were often in games late.

The team was led by senior Sarah Ramsey, but featured a freshman starting point guard in Samantha Coon and another freshman, Ashlynn Plasters, who played significant minutes as the season wound down. Along with juniors Corinna Schneider and Laura Heath, among others, the team became more familiar with each other and looks to have a strong season next year.

“These girls came to practice every day, listened, wanted to learn, and that is refreshing. We will be young next year, but better. At the end of this season I was expecting them to want a break away from basketball, but many cannot wait to get back in the gym! I am looking forward to next season, this summer, and teams will have to watch out for us in the near future,” said Scott.