Through moving from a small all-girls school to Wando with its 3,000 students, cross country has stayed a constant in senior Ava Kane’s life. Soon after she started running in eighth grade, she realized that she had fallen in love with the sport. “I really liked it. It [was] fun meeting all the older people on the team that graduated
even though they weren’t going to be there next year,” Kane said. Her love for running continued even when she switched schools in ninth grade. However, she originally only ran cross country to prepare herself for track. Kane would later come love the team aspect of cross country.
“I remember how close our team was. We would have parties and team dinners. It just made it more than a team,” Kane said.
She has drastically changed as a runner since she first started. Not only has she grown The love and dedication senior Kai Murdock has for basketball runs deep. Due to his mom playing college basketball at Gonzaga and his father in high school, Murdock has always been surrounded by the sport. The role basketball played in his family life later inspired him to begin playing competitively.
Murdock started in second grade when he played for one of Mount Pleasant’s Recreational leagues. Although he dabbled in other sports such as football and track, his love for basketball remained strong. And it still does to this day.
“I kind of base my whole life and everyone around [it]. It’s pretty much 24/7 for me and all I think about,” Murdock said.
His determination continued, especially during this year’s off-season. Murdock practiced around three to four times a week, taking time to make sure to perfect his shots.
“I always make sure, every day, to go [do] shots or do some sort of drills that help me to get better,” Murdock said.
However, Murdock did not expect the setback that would later follow. A broken ankle was not how we wanted to begin his pre-season.
“I was just frustrated, not being able to play the same way I wanted to and then [having] to heal,” Murdock said.
Luckily, it only set Murdock back a month. Yet, according to him, it will never fully heal due to how he broke it. That has not stopped himself and his team from setting new goals and dreams for this year’s season.
“I think we have big dreams. We want to be region champs… I definitely think we can make the playoffs, but it really just depends on how we start the season and how we keep our energy up during the season,” Murdock said.