Whiz Kids: St. Rocco Raptors 6th Grade Basketball Team

Amanda Baanante, Rachel Wade, Sydney DeCesare, Bella Montecalvo, Alexa Raposa, Naja Sasa, and Jen Walitsch, grade 6, St. Rocco School.

Accomplishment: The girls, members of the school's Raptors basketball team, secured the number-one seed in Midget Division I of the state Catholic school playoffs with a 12-2 season record. They'll proceed directly to the finals game, to be held March 19 at Bishop Hendricken High School.

Key To Awesomeness: Camaraderie, according to Coach Dave Raposa.

All seven girls are in the same class in school, which further strengthens their sense of team, he says.

"They're all so close-knit that it makes it easy on the court," Rasposa explains. "If they can trust each other in class, it makes it easier to trust each other on the court."

The girls also showed unselfishness in their most recent game, on Feb. 6 against Fr. John V. Doyle School of Coventry — every member of the team scored at least one basket.

"It was the first time all year that the entire team scored in the same game," Raposa says.

Raposa adds that he hopes the girls "take the lesson of winning as a team from the court to life in general, and learn that they can be winners as individuals, as well."