Out of all the sports teams at Sunlake High School, almost no team at Sunlake is more accredited and hardworking than the Girl’s Basketball team. To date, the team have been district champions 4 times and been Regional Finalists twice. After the long and arduous tryout week, only the best and most willing are allowed to join.

Despite being new to the Sunlake Basketball team, Junior Aniya Collington is fitting right in with the rest of the team. “I’m one of the top players I would say, in my opinion, at our school.” She remarked,”I [bring] a lot of things that many players haven’t, especially at tryouts.

So far this season, Collington believes that she’s doing “really well”. She recounted a past game earlier in the season she and her team are particularly proud of ,”It was 55 to 5. It a great, great, great, great game against Brooks DeBartolo [High School] ” During that Game she managed to score 14 points total, all while avoiding any fouls. She describe that game as an excellent example of them working together to defend. “We were a team, It was really good. ”

While their win over Brooks DeBartolo High School certainly boosted morale within the team, Collington say there is still a lot of room for improvement ,”We have a lot of things to work on as a new team.” Ms. Collington affirms, “A lot of seniors have left last year. We have a lot of freshmen, sophomores, and juniors as myself.” She described the season up until that point as “ not bad but not too good.”

Nonetheless, Collington has high hopes for the rest of the season, as at the time of this interview the Sunlake Girl’s Basketball Team were opening at district games.”I’m praying that if we can hold our record to a good record, then we can show that we can be an undefeated team…I think that I can look forward to having a good season with the team. ”

At the time of this article being written, the Sunlake Girl’s Basketball team have won District Champions and are moving on to regionals.

According to Collington, the best part about being on the team is being able to confidently show both her strength and weaknesses to her fellow teammates. When she’s at her best, she states, her teammates congratulate her. When she’s not doing to great, her team mates still cheer her,  she says, “but they also tell me what I need to work on.” To her, it’s a near perfect system of feedback.

Collington believes that feedback and being able to take criticism is a vital part of being a successful athlete,”Even though I don’t want to hear it,” She says,” I take it and I use it for next game. I feel like that’s really what’s made me a better player.” Although at  times she thinks that others on the team could do a better job of taking in such comments, She ultimately feels like the team is one big family that she can be honest “And I feel like I fit well into the family. It’s like a village. ”

When it comes to her Teammates, Collington has nothing but the highest praise. She admires fellow teammate Kaycie Hyde in particular, as she is the only Senior on the Varsity team this year and is considered to be a student leader within the group. “I feel like her being a leader has really helped me as a person at Sunlake. I feel like she brought a lot of growth that I needed to see.” She explains.

She also voices good sentiments towards her other teammates Cherity Powells (11th), Dawn Figuero(10th), and Phoebe Reimer (10th), most of whom she met in the local AAU Basketball League (a competitive basketball league not affiliated with any school). While Collington finds the differences between AAU and School Basketball to be a bit jarring at times, she knows that no matter who she is with she will be “playing to win.”

Collington’s love of Basketball started at a very young age when she was around three years old, although she had to stop for a while when she moved in middle school. At the end of her 8th grade year, she decided to start playing again for the Land O’ Lakes High School Basketball Team, but the road back to success wasn’t easy for her. Entering high school Collington suffered a severe injury that made it difficult for her to physically move around. Collington described the injury as being one of the greatest challenges she’s had to face, not just in her Basketball career but in life. “It was very hard for me to come back.” She admits.

However, with relentless effort and the support of her father and her best friend Collington continued to practice, eventually transferring to Sunlake High School and playing under Coach Pledge for both the AAU Basketball division and High School Basketball. Collington has a lot of admiration for her coach, saying that she helped her achieve many of her personal basketball goals. “She is very much helps me break down the details of the game of basketball, the sport, and what makes me passionate about the game….Coach Pledge is a great coach.”

In addition to Basketball, Aniya Collington also enjoys in several other physical activities such as track and volleyball. However she doesn’t actively participate in their respective teams here at Sunlake due to her wanting to focus on her academics above all. “I want to go to a great college. I feel like if I can show people why I can play basketball, I can show people why I can be in the same book room with them.” She ultimately want to be seen as both “book smart” and “basketball smart. ”

Her ultimate dream, she says, would be to either go into the Woman’s National Basketball League or to a similar league overseas, but Collington isn’t opposed into going into a field such as nursing, provided she could continue doing basketball on the side. “I want to keep basketball in my life or any sports in my life,” She explains, “Right now I don’t see it as a career but I hope that it could be a career.”

Collington believes that if her Junior and Senior years go as planned, she might be able to have a future in still be Basketball,”but after high school if I don’t see any offers coming in…then I probably will stick with nursing.” It is what it is, she states.

At the moment, Collington hopes that her current teammates continue to keep up the good work going into her senior year, as she has big plans for the future.”I hope that I can lead this team to going undefeated, going to districts, and becoming champions, that’s my goal in life when it comes to basketball” she stated, “I hope everybody’s the best moving forward.”