The Bridger girls basketball team has a new face roaming the sidelines this year.
Georgia Buckingham has taken over the reins for the Scouts and brings in experience from all over the place. Buckingham has coached junior high and high school teams, along with her time on the sidelines at Plenty Coups.
“The biggest thing that I’m implementing is, due to COVID, it affected everybody personally," Buckingham told MTN Sports. "For me, I lost a lot of family members. Back in Pryor, we lost a lot of our elders. We have very few elders left in Pryor. My philosophy of basketball now is, if you don’t enjoy doing it, don’t do it. Life’s too short. Life is too short to do something if you don’t enjoy it.”
Buckingham will have one of the youngest teams in the conference on the floor this year. The Scouts have no seniors and are heavy with underclassmen. That can be viewed as a positive, as there’s plenty of room for growth.
“I really think we can get decently far, but not having those older girls it’s going to be a little harder. I think together, as a team, we’ll eventually progress into a great team," junior guard Dylann Pospisil said.
“To me that’s exciting. They’re so coachable. We’ve got big plans. I have a lot of expectations from these girls because they’re so coachable. They do what I ask, so that’s kind of nice,” Buckingham said.
Buckingham played the game she loves for years before transitioning into coaching. She says her time at the lower levels was as much a learning experience for her as the players.
“I love the game. I never really thought I’d be a good coach until I tried it. I found I really enjoyed it, especially younger, when I was teaching junior high, I really liked that. I got to teach the fundamentals. They always say, ‘You learn more when you teach.’”
She seems to be doing just fine, as the Scouts are 4-3 heading into the Christmas break.
