Let the receipts show that I spent approximately 97% of my life in the gym between November 2025-March 2026 because that’s how basketball greatness is made.

Of course, there’s a cost to being great: Since our record was so strong last year, we got placed in the major leagues this year and faced tougher competition. But our Green Team Dream Team still managed to pull off a 20-8 record (and yes, some of those wins were against 7th grade teams… no big deal).

But let’s go back to the beginning….

Our season tipped off with an invitation to the Top 32 League Championship Tournament, where we took 7th place. Not bad—but also not where we planned to stay. So we got to work.

By the end of the season, our goal was simple: level up at the Wisconsin State Invitational Championship Tournament.

Mission accomplished: we brought home 4th place.

Needless to say, with a team as competitive as ours, anything less than 1st place didn’t exactly bring smiles to our red, sweaty faces. So now we’ve got unfinished business heading into next year. (We’re looking at you, Neillsville, Fall Creek, and Crivitz.)

Still, even though we fell short of gold, our bleached hair was a bright reminder that basketball is about more than wins… it’s about the friends we made, the memories we created, and how team unity and bonding sometimes means looking slightly ridiculous together. (But ridiculous or not, we did receive many glowing reviews from our fans!)

And beyond the hype around our blonde era, another highlight for me, personally, was getting selected to the State All-Tournament Team (for the second year in a row). Only 8 players in the small division got that honor this year, which basically means I earned bragging rights and a permanent spot in the Great Northwest Basketball League history books.

I’m not much of a bragger, however, so I simply shrugged my shoulders and let one side of my mouth curl into what might have been a smile. Because you know… “it’s good to be humble” (said my mom, as I watched her do a full-on happy dance with my dog, after suffocating me with hugs and kisses).

But basketball seasons aren’t made of just one moment, so here are some other honorable mentions from this season, in bullet points and pictures:

• My preseason conditioning routine (typically soccer practice and games) was enhanced by private lessons with Coach Deja
• My 2025-26 schedule consisted of basketball practice 4 nights a week (due to being invited to play up with the 7th grade team)
• Mom got rehired as our unofficial and unpaid team manager, so while the photo count is low, the stat sheets and game film collection are off the charts
• We learned zone defense this year (took a minute… but we got it)
• I worked on finishing at the rack—especially finishing high
• Grandma and Grandpa are still my most loyal fans
• We traveled to Green Bay, Wisconsin for the state tournament (I love a good road trip!) and Grandpa spotted an albino deer on the way (probably good luck?)
• Staying in the same hotel as the team = nonstop chaos in the pool and hot tub
• Cullen’s mom made posters for every single hotel room door (we felt famous)
• If you don’t count our slacker coaches, we had 100% team participation in bleaching our hair (commitment level: unmatched)
• Our family got tickets to a couple of college basketball games on our free nights
• We went 0–3 against Neillsville… so yeah, redemption tour coming next year
• We got to show off our skills during the halftime of the Varsity Boys basketball game (x3!)
• Coach Dad brought the boombox to some of our practices, and as it turns out, we’ve got moves you’ve never seen!

And then I blinked, and just like that, (after 5+ not-long-enough months), my love affair with basketball ended. Well, the season ended; my burning desire to keep playing did not. But the soccer fields were calling my name, and so I made an appearance at the obligatory year-end pizza party, hung up my Nikes, and exchanged my #40 Mustangs jersey for my #4 Rush uniform.

It’s never easy to say goodbye to something you love. Luckily, I live with the coach, so the life lessons will continue at the dinner table—but I already know I’m going to miss him on the basketball bench one day. And when my dad got choked up during his final speech of the season, I realized he’s going to miss it too. I’m not sure if anyone else saw the tear in his eyes or the lump in his throat, but I hope they did because it showed us a healthier and more expansive script for masculinity: one that makes space for emotion, for care, for being human.

We’ve got two more years together in the GNBL, and then Dad will pass the whistle and sticky mat to the high school coaches. But until then, we’re going to make the most of every minute. Because I know this much is true: while it’s been a good run so far, the best is yet to come.