Caption: Senior Leonardo Pedrozo gets ready to pass the ball during the game at EAC. [by Esther H. de Lima]
by Esther Hadassa de Lima (Warrior Post Reporter / São Paulo, Brazil)
On August 17, PACA won their first basketball games of the season for both the boys and girls varsity teams at Campinas, São Paulo against Escola Americana de Campinas (EAC) showing their hard work in practice is already starting to pay off in each of their performances.
“The first game of the season is always a bit stressful,” said Julie Peron, member of the varsity basketball team, who played as point guard.
For the first few weeks of school, the players have been practicing four to five days a week to get back in shape. Returning players were remembering what they learned the last season while adjusting to the new team members who have joined the team this year.
During these long hours of practice, the focus has been on good communication between the team and their coaches, as well as putting God at the center of their practices.
This first game required a few hours of travel as it was being hosted by EAC. Varsity Basketball players and cheerleaders were released from their 6th period classes at 1:45 pm, just to get there at 4:30 pm for the girls game that started at 5:00 pm.
After the two and half hour road trip, the girls were ready to play.
“We were ready to beat the Giants,” said Peron, and they did not want to travel to Campinas to lose.
The PACA’s basketball girls varsity team were the first to play against EAC to earn a 23-9 win.
“The girls played very well for their first game,” said coach Brian Zuercher.
According to Zuercher, the girls played like crazy to win their game and he was proud of their efforts. He also said the whole school should be proud of how the girls played with skill and confidence.
“I knew we would win the game,” said junior Julia Falchi, one of the team members who played as a point guard.
The boys varsity team played against EAC after the girls game ended. The first half of the game was intense, as EAC took a commanding lead and stayed ahead by a few points during the first quarter of the game.
The EAC fans, who were watching the game, rooted for their team in loud cheers toward a possible victory. However, PACA was not to be outdone as their cheerleaders were also at the game to spur on their team. Their cheers encouraged the boys not to give up in spite of the rough start to the game.
The cheerleaders spelled out “bold” and “best” in the following interactive chants:
B-O-L-D
That’s the way we want to be, be bold!
Hey, Hey, be bold!
B-E-S-T
That’s the way you spell the best, the best!
Hey, Hey, the best!
During timeout the cheers sang this song with the crowd, and everyone danced together, while the coach talked to the players.
During the fourth quarter, the PACA fans started screaming, “God still has faith in us!”
By the end of the game, the PACA team was able to regain their position to scrape by with a 25-23 win at the time the final buzzer sounded.
“It wasn’t our best performance,” said the senior Leonardo Pedrozo who played as center. “With resilience, and managing to fight, we were able to win.”
At the end of the game, both PACA’s teams had also gained a lot of experience and knowledge regarding which types of skills could now be the focus of their future practices. With the semester just started, PACA teams have a lot of things to work on and improve upon in the weeks to come while keeping their primary goal at the forefront of their efforts.
As Pedrozo said, “The team’s main goal is to reflect God’s image every time the team steps on the court.”
