A puzzle with a thousand or even a million pieces is not impossible. Completing it may take some time, but there is no doubt in the feeling of accomplishment. 

The girls varsity basketball team is building a successful team this year. Head coach, Josh Siske, has little to no doubt in the returning and new players abilities to assist in this endeavor. 

“We can definitely be successful again, we just have to find a different way of playing and find a different way of being successful,” Siske said. 

Oftentimes in previous years, the Monarch girls simply outscored other teams. While scoring points is crucial, this year an opposite approach is occurring. 

“We have to limit every teams second chance opportunities” Siske said, “We’re going to work a lot of defense in practice, practice it over and over again and demand execution of that.” 

Not only is defense a major piece of the puzzle this year, but so is getting every player to fill their roles and developing a strong leadership basis.  

Although the girls have certain aspects of their play to further develop, Siske is excited to watch the team evolve. 

“It’s fun seeing how different teams come together and how different teams play together,” Siske said “And seeing how much they grow from the beginning of the year to the end of the year” 

The goal is to get back to state and compete and to do this, the girls need to continue to work for it. 

“There’s a lot of good teams coming back to state [and] we returned a lot of good players from last year and we lose some good pieces too,” Siske said. “[But] we are going to get going after school with more conditioning and running and really kick it into gear to get ready.” 

A million pieces can seem daunting, but when you finish and relive all the emotions once present, the frustration, hardships, and exhaustion become all worth the end result.