Basketball developing from MSGA to MHS

Sydney Hernandez Staff Writer

Building a sixth grade through 12th grade sports program has its challenges. Head Basketball Coach Markus Hood stated that consistency is key to a winning program, not just in rings and records but in team chemistry. A lot goes into making a winning program. Bonds must be made between coaches and teammates. Without this, teams are unable to reach their full potential and get to the places they need to be.

“Chemistry with the team has really been a challenge because our school system at the high school level has been so transient with kids coming in and coming out. Talent is also important, but you must have chemistry within the talent,” Hood said.

The basketball program at the Marietta Sixth Grade Academy, MSGA, is changing.

“The sixth-grade program has always been here [in the school system through PALS], but it has just been folded up under us in this past year,” Hood said.

MSGA basketball was previously organized by the Police Athletic League, PALS, to help students develop basketball skills and consistency throughout the middle school and high school levels in the future. With being a part of PALS, it also helped young kids become a part of the Marietta community and become involved with the police.

The Marietta Board of Education has a policy stating the school system is responsible for facilitating athletic programs from grades six through twelve. A long time ago, this policy was not followed, which overall led to the sixth-grade program falling under the control of the Police Athletic League. As a result, this was noticed, and the program was developed over time.

Implementing the program as an official part of the school will make sure that the athletes are able to grow and reach their full potential. When following through with the entire program from middle school to high school, athletes are able to gain knowledge on how the the program is run and they become better at their sport in totality.

Deana Ham is a mother and an active member of the Marietta community. She coaches the middle school girls team and her son and daughter are part of the middle school program and started their journeys in basketball at MSGA.

“The work the middle school coaches have put into these kids has been extensive. They give p their personal time to workk with players and even run summer programs,” Ham said.

They will continue to grow throughout the next couple of years and be a part of the ongoing fight to build a winning program through high school and middle school.

Marietta has built many programs, not just in basketball, but in other sports. Programs need to be made for all sports in all grades because it is the duty of the school. Swim is currently adding at sixth garde and baseball has been discussed.

“We previously worked with the Police Athletic League, and they have helped us in so many different sports and with younger ages, but if we are going to do six-twelve athletic programs, it must be in all sports,” District Athletic Director Craig McKinney said.

When building the school-organized program, a new middle grades athletic director, Josh Hawk, has also been added to help with overall running of different sports.

"When running middle school sports at the same time as high school, not being able to be in two places at once is a challenge but, having somebody over there to help with organization and communication is very helpful and a good idea," McKinney said.

Coach Hood instructs the team to work together during a timeout. Despite the loss to Hillgrove, honorary captains from summer camp get to listen and learn on the bench. photo by Sydney Hernandez

With creating this program to be an official part of the school, Marietta took a multitude of steps and took many measures to make sure this was right for the school system and for upcoming athletes.