On Friday, December 13th, Parker hosted the annual Latin-Parker basketball game at DePaul University. The game attracts many fans from both schools and provides the opportunity for students to show their school spirit. Every year, the game intensifies the rivalry between Latin and Parker while also allowing varsity basketball players to showcase their skills. While most students cheer from the bleachers, Parker live streamed the event on Youtube to allow more people to view the games.

Breaking the routine of previous years, the Latin Varsity Girls Basketball team played Parker at DePaul for the first time since 2007. The team dominated the game both offensively and defensively and demonstrated excellent ball movement, securing a 60-12 win. 

Although Latin’s girls basketball team has a reputation for their skill, there continues to be a gap between the number of fans at the girls game and the number at the boys game. Junior Marianne Mihas, who plays on the girls team, spoke on the issue. “There is a much larger disparity in talent between the girls teams than there are between the boys teams, so obviously their games will be more exciting,” said Mihas. She understands how people would not be as invested in watching the girls game because there isn’t much of a competition. 

On the other hand, the lack of support the girls team receives is unfair to the girls team members. According to Mihas, playing at DePaul “highlights how little people value our girls team talent.” Marianne continued to say that “the atmosphere is almost more saddening” when the girls team plays at DePaul in contrast to their “regular home games because it’s a massive, empty stadium.” The lack of fans at the Latin Parker game takes away from the spirit of the game. “It is really demoralizing to know we will never be the priority,” Mihas added. 

Meanwhile, Avery Selz, one of the managers of the boys team, observed, “There were actually a lot of fans for the girls, especially compared to Parker’s stands.” Avery believes that this year’s game exemplified “improved support for our women’s teams.” While Avery has hope for the future, she also believes “there is obviously always room for growth.” 

This year, Avery and Grace Lovette act as the two managers of the varsity boys team. Avery became a manager “to learn about sports management” because she is “interested in majoring in it college.” She believes that managing the team has taught her valuable information she’ll take with her to college. On the other hand, Grace “wanted to manage a team during the winter” because she doesn’t play a winter sport. Fortunately, the boys team was a “perfect” team to manage “since they were in need of a manager” and Grace gets “along well with the guys on the team,” according to Lovette.
The role of team manager entails running the clock, helping with drills, filming games, recording stats, and making sure the players have water and are prepared for games. To sum it up, Grace says, as a manager, “we do a lot of the behind the scenes stuff that the coaches need and is not the job of the captains.” 

Following the girls game, Latin’s boys varsity team stepped onto the court. Unfortunately, the boys team barely lost, 47-55, to Parker. Manager Avery Selz reflected on the game, saying “I think the boys played well on Friday. They were definitely nervous without some of their star players but they tried their hardest.” 

Ryan Kramer ‘22, who played with the varsity team at the DePaul game, believes the “game was not a good representation of what this Varsity team can really do.” He doesn’t believe the game reflected the team’s skill and promises “the results will be very different at the Depaul game later in the season.” 

Manager Grace Lovette agrees, “The rest of the season is looking up for us.” She hopes that “once we get James Wolf back,” James being the captain of the team, and “the guys get closer as the season goes on, we will only get better.” 

Avery as well as the boys’ coach, Coach Denard, believe that the boys “faced a lot of adversity game wise in the past week.” Avery believes that the boys had a rough game and will “live up to their high standards” in future games. 

In the words of senior and co-captain Joe Kennedy, “There are wins, and there are learning experiences.” The boys believe that the team’s loss will only make them stronger and push the team to grow and improve.