When the Sedona Red Rock Junior High School girls basketball team began practicing, fewer than five girls showed up. Eventually, though, the girls who were there talked to their friends and encouraged them to come out to give the Scorpions a full team. For a team still learning the game, that’s a big step in the right direction.

Sedona lost both of the games it played before the season was suspended until January. Those results were expected. The Scorpions have seven girls on the team while their opponents have both had more than twice as many players. The other teams are also older, as Sedona has no eighth-graders on the roster. Additionally, coach Tim Smith noted that more than half of the Scorpion players had no experience in the game before this season.

But none of that has done anything to dull the enthusiasm of the players.

“It’s looking alright — we’re getting better every practice,” Kelley Arias said. “It’s really fun every time we go to a game. We’ve lost a couple of games but every game we’ve been to has been really fun.”

“It’s been good. We’re improving more,” added Sheila Montes do Oca. “At first I didn’t want to come here. I felt that I wasn’t good. But now that I’m here, I’m having fun.”

Practices have focused predominantly on the fundamentals such as dribbling, layups and shooting. The more team-oriented drills will come as the fundamentals start to become more prevalent.

But Smith has noticed an improvement in their play. Not only has he noticed it, but the team has, as well. That’s made them more enthused to come to practice each day.

“They’re great learners and they keep coming back,” Smith said. “They’re here every day. They’re coming, they’re motivated, they want to practice during the break. They want to get better.”

“They see that they’re getting better and that encourages them to keep coming,” he added. “They’re making more shots. They’re understanding how the game works. They have more control of the ball. When they see the progress, it makes them think, ‘Wow, if I do this, I can get better and better.’”

Smith also hopes that by having a season this year, it will encourage other girls to come out in future seasons. That, in turn, will help the high school team have a foundation to build upon once the girls currently in high school have graduated.

As far as what the team wants to accomplish this year. They know they’re going to have less experience than pretty much every team they play. But they also hope to pull out a few victories.

Beyond that, they hope to continue having fun learning the game and being with each other.

“I would want us to win at least a couple of games,” Ariana Guzman said. “And I want us to talk to each other and become friends.”

“I hope all of us can shoot and that we have good friendships,” teammate, Karina Diaz, agreed. “I hope we have a great season. Go Scorpions.”