The Niles North girls basketball program is putting a lot of time and work on the courts to prepare for the 2019-20 season with tryouts on November 4. The Niles North girls are fired up and ready for the season. They have been training hard in the off season.

 “We started preparing in late August. Two days per week, we condition after school,” varsity coach Daniel Paxson said. “Our conditioning includes ACL strengthening exercises, plyometrics, core strengthening, and sprints.  We also include some long distance running as a way to prepare for those tight 4th quarter games! Our goal is to become better conditioned than all of our opponents.”   

 The program has many new players joining including many freshmen. Many returning players are hoping this season will be a fresh start with a new change in the conference as well as being able to communicate well as a team. 

“For basketball season, I’m looking forward to being a leader on this team this year as a senior and helping to grow our team dynamic since we’ll have a lot of new players in the varsity program this season,” senior varsity player Udoka Nwansi said.

“We are looking forward to our opening Thanksgiving tournament. Last year was our first year in the tournament (IC Catholic Prep Thanksgiving Tournament) and we had some success.  We hope to represent ourselves this year in the same way. Personally, I am looking forward to coaching a very young team. We enter a new side to our conference this year, so it will be fun playing against teams that we have not faced recently. Maine West is in our conference and they finished as the number one team in the state last year as well as being nationally ranked. For all of these reasons, it is personally a joy coming to practice everyday!” Varsity Coach Daniel Paxson said. 

If you are interested in trying out, make sure to have your sports physical before hand and be ready to go after school. 

Their first varsity game will be held at home in the main gym vs Hoffman Estates at 7:00 on November 18. Make sure you go out and support the girls as they put their hard work out onto the court!