Just recently, our very own Quartz Hill High School varsity basketball team began an exciting new season. It includes players such as Zach Miller, Erick Balcazar, and Shemar Fisher. After tryouts, Mr. Nichter, the varsity basketball coach, cut many players off the team to create our dominant 11 player roster.

   The Rebels began their season in a game against the Eastside Lions at Eastside High School. This closely-contested game came down to the wire with both teams firing on all cylinders. By halftime, our Rebels found themselves down by 2 points. Remarkably, they went on a 4th quarter run to win the game 62-55.

   However, this game was not the most intense of the season. On January 20th, Quartz Hill hosted the Eastside Lions in a rematch on our home court. Eastside set the tempo by creating a 9 point lead. When the fourth quarter came around, our Rebels went on a hot streak to push this game into overtime. Each team played as well as they could until Quartz Hill beat the Lions 69-64.

   Despite these successes, Quartz Hill has not won every game on their schedule. On December 16, we hosted our rivals the Highland Bulldogs, our biggest rival, came to our court and beat our Rebels 88-47. The team put up a tough competition for the Bulldogs, but just did not have it in them to come back in this game.

   In an interview after the game, Erick Balcazar explained, “We did not play the way we wanted to play out there, but we will be back.” He then outlined the team’s advantages on Highland: “We have better ball movement and 3 point shooters.” He also discussed the weaknesses: “We are not perfect either because we could work on the defensive end.”

   We can only hope that the Highland blowout will push our Rebels to become better players and learn from their mistakes.