Women’s Basketball has officially started and is the only women’s sport at Clague for season two. Basketball has taken on a new format at Clague with an A team and a B team. The teams will have a mix of seventh and eighth graders and are now based on skill, not by grade. 

“I have been coaching basketball for 20 years and I still enjoy teaching and coaching the game [of basketball],” Physical Education teacher at Clague and coach for the A team Deborah Mullice said.

Basketball has recently grown in popularity internationally and it has shown in professional play with the National Basketball Association (NBA) having the last five regular season Most Valuable Players (MVPs) not from the United States. There has also been a growing interest in women’s basketball with new stars emerging in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), such as Sabrina Ionescou, A’ja Wilson, and the rookie Caitlin Clark. 

The WNBA was only created in 1996, making it relatively new as a professional sport, compared to the NBA being created in 1949. Before the creation of the WNBA, most women played other sports. 

“If I could tell Clague students anything about school sports is to be open and try the different sports because you could be the next sports star in a sport you would have never tried,” Mullice said. “As an athlete myself, I tried out for track because my friends were doing it and I was actually the fastest runner on the team.”

The Women’s Basketball season started on Oct. 18 with a game against Tappan Middle School and will end at Clague on Jan. 13 against Forsythe Middle School. This is Women’s Basketball premier of using the A-Team and B-Team format.

“This year will be different, because we will no longer have a seventh grade team and eighth grade team, we will be like the other sports and have an ‘A; team and ‘B; team,” Mullice said. “We have a great group of girls on the team this year and I’m excited that I get to coach them.”