The term “basketball is life” is widely used, and understandably relates to freshman Abbey O’Brien Weiss, yet her new-found injury forced her to hold out on the playing.

One of the many girls to make the freshman girls basketball team, O’Brien Weiss had already noticed a difference in the high school league.

“The team is good. It’s more intense in high school, so you can’t slack off,” O’Brien Weiss said. “There’s always someone watching for next year, for either JV or Varsity, so there’s more pressure.”

Although, worrying about the pressure of the other teams would have to wait.

“During a practice, I had a collision with someone and fell, but my wrist didn’t hurt so I didn’t think anything of it,” O’Brien Weiss said. “The next day in the game, I was going for a rebound, but a girl knocked into me and fell on my wrist.”

Realizing that the pain was actually a sprain, she was forced to stop playing.

“Although it stinks to sit out, it’s better that it happened near the end of the season, because it’s less substantial,” O’Brien Weiss said. “If it happened in the middle of the season, it’d just be easier for me to injure myself again.”

With more free time, she’d been able to feel more like an observer than a teammate.

“You see things differently. When you’re playing, you’re caught up in the hype, but now you see things in a different light, and you can focus on the small stuff,” O’Brien Weiss said.

“I’ve noticed that one of our big strengths is that we have good forwards, and we are really fast, which gives the guards a lot of breakaways,” O’Brien Weiss said.

Despite their strengths, she’s also seen that they “aren’t as tall as some teams are,” but they “make up for it with their speed and aggression.”

She feels confident that they can go far in the league.

“I feel some other freshman teams are less experienced, because we are a bigger

school, which means there’s more competition with better players,” O’Brien Weiss said.

However, O’Brien Weiss remains hopeful for next year.

“Playing basketball for the school freshman year, is the perfect way to ease you into the program,” O’Brien Weiss said, “it will help prepare you for next year.”