On January 16th, Greeley West basketball hosted one of its most competitive home basketball games against its rivalry school, Greeley Central. The rivalry between GWHS and GCHS has gone on since the beginning of time. There’s a big importance when it comes to sports going against Greeley Central. 

This game is important not only to the basketball team but also to the school and the students in the school. It helps bring together excitement and joy, which helps keep these cross town rivalries going.

Students participate in showing up and cheering on your team to hopefully watch them win the opposing team. While facing Greeley Central on Thursday it was a close match against both teams keeping it neck and neck. Greeley Wests boys basketball put up a good fight but didn’t manage to keep the fight going and got cut short towards the end. 

The most common thing that players had noticed was the lack of team effort and communication with each other. “We had it in the beginning but towards the end we started to play individually,” junior Zaiden Montelongo said.

Once West started to lose, some players felt that it was their responsibility to hold the whole team together by themself and the team aspect started to go away. 

It’s difficult to keep good team defense together when team coordination isn’t at its highest point, which is why West struggled towards the end of the game when Central started to take a lead. “One thing that we could change was probably defense. It was our biggest struggle, everything else was good though,” Wyatt Edwards said.

This goes to show the importance of team communication and pointing out the importance each person had put into each part of the game. Coming together as a team and acknowledging each other and their accomplishments during the game is important to build as a team, including when you go against your cross rivals.