VARSITY BBALL WINS ON THE ROAD - Report by Coach Ouellette

The DDS Varsity basketball team traveled to Poughkeepsie Day School on Thursday afternoon for their annual meeting and boy did an exciting game break out. DDS came away with an incredibly hard-fought victory, (DDS-30 and PDS-25) with everyone contributing to our team’s success.
Tri-captain’s Griffin Wilson, (20 points), Hudson Kuras, (8 points), and Adam Baker, (2 points), accounted for all our scoring but that is not where the story lies. Overall, we had a very cold shooting day, both from the perimeter and in the paint. I could say with reasonable confidence that we could have scored 50 points with all the missed fast break layups and long distance rim shots, but like any coach would say, “That happens during the season and I am grateful for the win”.
The real story of this game is the bus trip to the game and the never “give-up” attitude of our kids on the court. I always start the bus trip off with a big hello to our driver, a little snack, a short talk and then some free time to do whatever they would like while traveling to the game. About 15 minutes from the visitor’s school we have a little “prep” talk. We discuss our strategy, including our offensive and defensive plans for this particular opponent. We did all that, but something was very different this year. During the free time, the team was busy studying their playbooks, discussing their different responsibilities on each play, helping those who were absent with some new twists I incorporated, and all were firmly focused on basketball. It was a pleasure to ease drop on them, as they made me very proud of their attitudes about and commitment to this game I truly love.
What else stood out was there interaction with each other. There was nothing but positive, genuine respect for each other, patience with each other’s questions, and a team spirit that was infectious. Danielle was busy listening to the discussions, but was sketching on her pad. Griffin looked over and complimented her on her drawings. It was genuine and beautiful to witness. Hudson was his usual gregarious self, adding his infectious, up-tempo personality to the mix. As I wrapped Shriman’s ankle in the back of the bus, our birthday boy was anxious to score his first points on his special day. It wasn’t to be, but the anticipation was fantastic. Cooper added his usual clever repartee to the mix, while Adam quietly advised the younger players and answered their specific questions. Austin, just off a great practice the day before, was anticipating a continuation of his outstanding play.
Yes, we won the game and stayed undefeated. We are very proud of that achievement. It wasn’t a pretty win, it wasn’t our usual solid performance, but it was another wonderful learning experience. We brought all of our offensive and defensive “weapons” with us, but they were a bit rusty and needed some polishing. So instead of conceding anything to our opponent, we buckled down and played better defense, we fought for better position under the boards, we encouraged our teammates from the bench, we showed good bench discipline, and we came away with a victory. We could have easily given up on this game, but we didn’t. We dug deep and found another way to win, a way that doesn’t show up in any box score, but makes a coach very proud. We used a very tried and true method to win this game. Good old fashioned hard work! As a team, a cohesive unit, we worked extremely hard from the tip-off of the ball until the final buzzer. We never gave up. I am so proud of our young, student-athletes.