A difficult season on the hardwood led to significant growth for the Powell Middle School seventh grade boys’ basketball team this season, with the Cubs improving each step of the way before seasons’ end.

While the team only won two games, coach Eric Oram said they narrowed the deficit against each team by the end of the campaign.

“We won only two games this season but we narrowed the scoring deficit on many teams as we played them for a second time,” Oram said. “Not all victories are won on the scoreboard.”

Coming into the season he said that much of the team did not have a lot of experience in a five-on-five setting, but continued to give their best effort every time they stepped on the court while learning from the coaching staff.

“Our team was very coachable,” Oram said. “They listened and tried to implement what the coaches were asking. They were great teammates too.”

He said that the group of 19 continued to show up every day with the intent of getting better together.

“We improved in so many ways from ball handling to shooting and passing,” Oram said. “The team got better working as a group to run plays, beating the other team’s defense and presses.”

“The coaches were very proud of how far this team came,” he added.

Oram said each player improved a lot over the course of the season.

He said that the next step for this team is to continue  playing and practicing their skills, as there is nothing that can replace consistent practice at a skill as the kids continue to get better at basketball.

“There were lots of fun moments and memories during the course of the season,” Oram said. “As a coaching staff, we hope that all of the kids had a lot of fun memories in their own way and fun team memories. We hope every kid that came out for seventh grade basketball wants to play the sport.”