Nov. 20, the unofficial varsity basketball team took on East Rockingham at home in their first scrimmage of the season. The team was composed of those who had made it past the first round of tryouts, which took place Nov. 11. Although East Rock came out as the winner, Varsity Coach Donald Burgess was still impressed by the effort the Streaks gave.

“The scrimmage versus East Rock went well. It was one of those things, we are still going through tryouts, for varsity and junior varsity team, but I was pleased with the effort and the energy. Even though we have a long way to go, but for the first time, for our kids to come out and scrimmage against a different opponent, I was very pleased with the effort and the energy,” Burgess said.

The Blue Streaks varsity basketball team will be officially decided after their second scrimmage against Orange County on  Nov. 26. For Coach Burgess, the scrimmages play an important role in how the team gets decided.

“Basically, from a coach’s standpoint I enjoy having the scrimmages because it allows me to put some student-athletes in different positions that they normally wouldn’t play in. I can see how they can handle those game-like situations,” Burgess said. “So basically it gave me another perspective in regards to utilizing players in different areas, and also utilizing some players in positions that are.”

Although there are some things that Coach Burgess believes the team still has to work on, he was pleased with how the team talked with each other during the game.

“I thought one of the things we did well was our communication. I thought we communicated  better than I had anticipated, in regards to helping each other out to be successful in the scrimmage. Especially, [since] we had only been together for three days  after we had tryouts,” Burgess said.

After HHS plays Orange County on Nov. 26, the official varsity team will be decided. From there, the Streaks will keap practicing until Dec. 2, when they will face Albemarle at an away game.