North Ridge 8th Grade Girls Hoops on Way to State

 (Above) North Ridge 8th Grade Girls Basketball team co-captains Ashanti Conaway and Jada Bell.

The North Ridge 8th Grade Girls Basketball team is heading for Elite-8 state play in Normal following a quick practice after school this (Friday Dec 9th) evening.  Coach Drew O’Connell says they made it this far after a good regular season, and a win over the defending state champions.

AUDIO: We went 18-2 in the regular season.  Wednesday night, for the sectional championship, we ended up having to play Taylorville, who won Class 4A last year as seventh graders.

North Ridge 8th Grade Girls Basketball Coach Drew O’Connell.

We spoke with co-captains Ashanti Conaway and Jada Bell, who said there have been challenges, but they kept on improving.

AUDIO: (Ashanti) We had some ups and downs.  Really, we’ve just been putting in the work; working hard.  We had to keep our motivation high.  (Jada) It means a lot to me; because we had, like she said, lots of ups and downs.  We just gotta keep pushing harder and make it to state.

Best of luck to the North Ridge 8th Grade Girls, at the Elite-8 in Normal!