Bolstered by eighth-grade feeder system, Watertown High girls’ basketball has depth for postseason

Last year, the first basketball season with COVID started, and, as a result, many sports seasons were canceled because of high positive case numbers. Given that there is no middle school basketball season, the girls’ basketball team had the idea to bring eighth-graders up from the middle school to play junior varsity. This would increase the number of players on JV and would positively impact the program. This has carried on to the 2021-2022 season as well.

The Raiders were 16-6 overall and won the Middlesex League Freedom Division with an 11-5 league mark. The Raiders earned the No. 7 seed in the Division 3 state tournament, which is based on power rating, and will host Greater Lowell (12-9) on Friday, March 4, at 6 p.m.

Watertown coach Pat Ferdinand has a very interesting take on the middle schoolers that have come up to play this year and in past years.

“I think if it’s the right eighth-grader, it’s a good fit,” he said. “It helps them to develop differently, and they are also getting 5-6 days of practice in a week and the season is longer than it is at the middle school.”

He also said that the player needs to have the right mentality to be able to successfully play at a higher level than middle school. The eighth-grader who came up to play this year was Mia Caterino.

“I knew that Mia was going to be one of them [eighth-graders],” he said. “She is competitive, she really wants to get better, and she was the right kid to fit that.”

He thinks she is going to develop sooner because of the competitive state she is in right now, “and the way she carries herself is excellent.” The low number of eighth-graders who were promoted did as not discouraged Ferdinand. He described it as “quality over quantity.”

As Coach Pat said, if it’s the right eighth-grader, it’s the right fit. Mia definitely sees a difference in her game from playing at a higher level. She said she is benefiting so much because of how much she is being challenged. She says that overall her skills have improved. Ball handling, shooting, and her offensive and defensive work as well. Mia says that she thinks playing JV now is going to help her in her later years of high school basketball.

“I’m getting a feel to how things run, and the skill level of high school basketball overall,” she said.

Mia also said that even though she is younger than everyone else she still feels like she is getting used and challenged the same as everyone else. She also plays travel basketball outside of JV.

Mia says that she has become much stronger and much more confident when playing with her travel team which only consists of eighth-graders.

“Many of my skill levels have heightened, which include some of my ball handlings and driving to the hoop,” she said.

Although Mia is confident in her skill level and playing with older kids now, earlier in the season knowing she was going to play with older kids scared her.

“I was afraid of being judged since my skill level would be lower than everyone else,” she said.

But she also said that once she found out she was the only middle-schooler coming up to play she was a little self-conscious about that and didn’t know if she wanted to go through with the idea.

Last year, four players were brought up – Adrianna Williams, Alani Garey, Lily Shabazyan, and Victoria Dicker. These four are now freshmen at Watertown High School.

“Playing up last year really helped me on time management. As you get to high school you have to balance hard classes and your sports,” Adrianna says.

Williams, Garey, Shabazyan, and Dicker also all played travel basketball while playing JV like Mia.

“So when I played JV I also played travel basketball so I was balancing having two practices a day, plus school work,” Williams said.

Garey also thinks that playing as an eighth-grader has helped her as a freshman. She says that it helps that she has already played with some of the girls last year. As for thinking about the difference between middle and high school basketball, Garey said, “I think there is a higher standard of how being able to compete and how you hold yourself.”

She also says that middle school travel basketball is less intense than high school but says that both are still very fun.

Williams says that she doesn’t see a huge difference between high school and middle school basketball.

“Seeing taller, older girls do give the team some nerves, but I think we all play hard and compete throughout the whole game no matter what,” she said.

Shabazyan said, “Playing for the high school team showed me the intensity and effort put into high school basketball and how to prepare myself for the next four years.”

She says that being put into an atmosphere with more skilled players as a younger player has made her better. Shabayan also says that high school basketball is much different than middle school/travel basketball.

“I feel like in high school everything moves at a faster pace and everyone is working hard to essentially win,” she said.

Coach Pat thinks that for the freshman now who played JV last year, it is helping their freshman season “100 percent.”

“Because of co-practice, they have had two full years of varsity practice and they are able to be involved at a higher rate,” he said.

Overall, having eighth-graders play up in the high school program is not only a benefit to the younger players and their improvement on skills, but also the whole team and program itself for helping things now, and for future teams to come.

–March 3, 2022–