By Dean Vaglia
Leader Staff Writer
The 2021/2022 Oxford High School basketball season began with tragedy.
Originally scheduled to play their home opener against the Fraser Ramblers on Nov. 30, a school shooting that left four students dead — including incoming freshman player Hana St. Juliana — postponed the girls’ season until late in December and locked both teams out of Oxford High School for games and practices.
Both the boys and girls are settling into a rhythm now that their seasons are underway, though getting to where they are now has been difficult. The boys have practiced at the UWM Sports Complex in Pontiac while the girls’ practices have been at Oxford Middle School. Neither team has played at home though the Ian Smith Gym is planned to host home games starting Jan. 24.
The combination of dealing with tragedy and always being on the road have been a challenge to the teams, but players have found support in each other.
“We have been lucky enough to have a group of girls that want to compete,” Rachel Bryer, girls varsity coach, said. “They want to get back to normal, they want to have a season. There have been times where we’ve had to stop practice and basically just worry about our emotions and figure out what we are going to do next. But overall my girls have shined through the situation.”
Support has come not just from the players, but also from their families and fans.
“The parents and the community, their support at our games have been overwhelming,” Steve Laidlaw, boys varsity coach, said. “It is greatly appreciated.”
Oxford basketball has powered through tragedy onto a competitive early season. As of press time, both teams have 5-3 records and are putting on competitive performances. Both teams have kept their losses below a 20-point deficit while putting more than a few 30-plus point gaps on their way to wins. There have even been a few close games, such as when the boys lost 39-45 against Lake Orion on Jan. 8.
“We were tied with six minutes to go and had a chance to tie it on our last possession,” Laidlaw said.
Both teams skew heavily toward freshmen and sophomore players so getting them up to speed with each program has been a key issue. As for each team’s specific issues, Laidlaw says the boys need to work on cutting down turnovers while Bryer finds that the girls are working twice as hard to make up for the stolen early-season weeks.
Some of the key players for the boys are senior captains Bryce Esman, Alec Brown and Ben Cruze. For the girls, junior guard Miranda Wyniemko has averaged around 16 points a game and freshman forward Nevaeh Wood has led the team in rebounds.
This week the boys take on the Holly Bronchos and Southfield Arts & Technology Warriors on the 18th and 21st, while the girls travel south to play Lake Orion Dragons on the 20th. All games start at 7 p.m.