The 2023–2024 winter sports season at Justice High School ended with a terrific season for the Girls Varsity Basket­ball team. The Lady Wolves expe­ri­enced a flurry of ups and downs through­out their season. The hard work, deter­mi­na­tion, and will­ing­ness to bend, not break, has led the Wolves to a season with a winning record. At the end of the season, they won 54% of their games with 13 wins and 11 losses. The team began the season play­ing above .500 basket­ball, which means they were winning more than half of their games. Through­out their season, the team saw astound­ing improve­ments and progress with their dedi­ca­tion to the sport. The Lady Wolves are look­ing forward to taking home the cham­pi­onship in the district tournament.

The Girl’s Varsity Basket­ball team has strong grounds to make an argu­ment for being the most hard-work­ing team here at Justice. They are also very trans­par­ent with each other and their coach. They know what they’re doing when it comes to play­ing qual­ity basketball.

“They are giving feed­back as to what is going wrong, or what is left, versus me telling them all the time. They are giving the feed­back from those who played a lot and those who don’t play a lot. They get a chance to see the game, they are giving their team­mates feed­back to what is going good [versus] what is going bad,” states Girls Varsity Basket­ball Coach Barbara Burgess.

Despite facing adver­sity with some extremely tough losses, these losses led to learn­ing moments and inspired the team to reflect on what they could do better. Later in the season, they lost 32–30 in a nail-biting battle against Thomas Jeffer­son High School of Science and Tech­nol­ogy. But, they had more great victo­ries includ­ing a blowout win over Unity Reed High School with the score of 75–7. They also won some terrific games against Mount Vernon High School with the score of 46–44 and Annan­dale High School with the score of 51–41.

The team’s chem­istry has been a crucial factor in their success. With their bond, they have been a force to be reck­oned with on the court. Although the team is young, they are in line to become a great team in the future since they are only losing three seniors this year, Makeda Endalka­chew, Alexia Varfis, and Halima Hajhas­san. Next year they hope to pick up what this year’s team put down and continue to dominate.

Look­ing past the statis­tics and the on-court skills, the Justice Girls Varsity Basket­ball team looks to leave its mark on our school history and to create memo­ries for years to come. Through­out  this season’s many ups and downs, the team’s passion and deter­mi­na­tion toward the game of basket­ball have prevailed and Justice wishes them good luck in the future.