Season ends in double OT, sees much team growth

    By the time the Feb. 19 Holyoke-Akron boys basketball game was in double overtime, some spectators were longing for a shot clock. What had been an exciting and suspenseful contest up to that point turned into a game of catch as Akron anticlimactically ran out the clock with a narrow lead. A 64-58 win kept the Rams in the district tournament, and the Dragons saw the end of their season.
    In last Tuesday’s game, and in the season as a whole, HHS faced some tough competition, but coach Marcus Kammer was exceptionally proud of one thing in particular. “We never had a quitters attitude,” he said, though it must have been hard not to at some points.
    Looking solely at the win-loss record reveals a rough year for the Dragons, but Kammer shared that there was more to it than that. Young players got plenty of new experience playing at the varsity level, and upperclassmen took on a leadership role. “As the season went on, we became a much more team oriented and disciplined team,” Kammer said.
    As Holyoke fans saw time and time again, the team did not back down, and the same can be said of the athletes playing on the JV and C teams. Looking at the big picture, Kammer noted, “The growth and adversity that we went through this year will be a huge building block for this program and these kids in all the sports seasons to come.”

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