Even over the summer, the Moffat County High School girls basketball team is keeping its intensity.

The Bulldogs hosted games with other local high schools at MCHS Tuesday in order to stay sharp. Despite taking place during the offseason, the coaches were still yelling and the players still going at full speed.

MCHS played against Steamboat Springs High School, Little Snake River Valley High School, Meeker High School and Hayden High School. The teams scrimmaged or ran through full-speed drills against each other for 20 minutes at a time.

Head coach Matt Ray said he was pleased with his players’ performance overall.

“We’ve worked so hard this summer to be a fast team, to keep the ball on the move, whether its on fast breaks or just with quick passing,” Ray said. “When we keep on the move we have looked pretty good. We were able to do that for the most part today, so it was great.”

While the girls looked good in the open court, Ray felt like they need more work in the half-court offensively.

“In the half-court so far we’re a little more sluggish. We need to work on our patience and getting good shots so that we can deal with teams that slow the game down more,” he said.

The four seniors that will lead the Bulldogs this year agreed with him.

“I think we need more work against teams that play zone defense,” senior Lisa Camilletti said.

MCHS has had a strong turnout for girls basketball this summer, Ray said. On Tuesday, the Bulldogs had two teams playing at once. Ray said they split the teams by separating the underclassmen and upperclassmen.

This was the third time during the summer MCHS has scrimmaged against other high schools. Ray said the summer can be a very valuable to a team for staying sharp between seasons.

“It’s just a good thing because you get the girls out here working hard and improving their game,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot of different teams this summer, too. Some teams are bigger than us, some like to run with us and some like to slow it down. It’s great experience to play against all those.”

Senior Kylee Ellgen said she thinks the summer is important because it is useful for staying in shape. Camilletti added that it is great to play against the wide variety of competition.

The girls basketball team is playing a total of 34 games this summer, before fall sports take over and the athletes go off to play volleyball or cross country. Until then, though, they are still practicing every morning.

The Bulldogs are coming off a successful season, in which they went 18-7 overall and 10-2 in the Western Slope League. They advanced to the Sweet 16 of the Colorado Class-4A State Tournament before being eliminated by Centaurus.

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