Holiday break is an exciting time for any student. Here at South Shore, we host a Secret Santa for the high school and middle school. After gifts are dispersed, the students get to pick their favorite Christmas movie to watch with some popcorn and hot chocolate until the end of the school day. You get to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with your family. Enjoy the scrumptious dinners and deserts, open presents, and relax. However, for the basketball teams here at South Shore, that not’s the end of the break.

Both the girls and boys high school basketball teams start practice right away after Christmas. The teams are in the gym running and sweating all of the Christmas calories off. This hard work is to prepare for the Holiday Tournament hosted by the Washburn Castleguards.  The teams had double headers in Washburn on Wednesday and Friday in the last week of December. On Wednesday, the teams played the Hurley Midgets as a conference game. The girls’ team started the games at 5:45 in Washburn. The girls came out with a solid win against Hurley, 49-23. Senior, Shauna Kavajecz scored her 1,000th point of her career and finished the game off with 32 points. Trailing behind was Crystal Stewart with 6 points, Emma Ostrenga and Myla Lahti with 4, and Rylee Nicoletti with 3. The boys completed the winning streak, beating the Hurley boys. The game was close and the boys worked hard to come out on top. Scoring was an even spread this game, proving the true teamwork of the South Shore boys. Dallas Williams, Connor Sorenson, and Tristan Warbalow led the team with 13 points, Tristin Wilcox and Hayden Suo both had 11 points, Roger Branham with 8, and Douglas Hipsher with 4. On Friday, the teams returned to the gym to play Washburn this time. The games on Friday were non-conference, but both teams still put in maximum effort. The girls game was back and forth with constant pressure. Both teams are known for their intense defense, and that showed. The game was very close, but the

On Friday, the teams returned to the gym to play Washburn this time. The games on Friday were non-conference, but both teams still put in maximum effort. The girls game was back and forth with constant pressure. Both teams are known for their intense defense, and that showed. The game was very close, but the Castleguards came out with the win. Shauna Kavajecz led the team with 16 points, Crystal Stewart with 6, Myla Lahti with 5, and the rest of the players chipping in a few more points. Besides the defeat, the South Shore girls are now prepared to face off the Guards again and come home with a win. The boys followed the girls, ready to change the tides. The game was close the entire game. Both teams going back and forth battling for points. With one minute left to go in the game, the South Shore boys were up by 6. However, the Washburn boys made a comeback to tie the game to go into overtime. The last 4 minutes of overtime was nail-biting. With less than 5 seconds the Cardinals were down by six. Within three seconds, Connor Sorenson, a junior, hit a three in the corner. There were 2.3 seconds left and it was Washburn’s turn to pass the ball in. Within 0.3 seconds South Shore’s defensive pressure caused Washburn to pass the ball out of bounds, giving the Cardinals a second chance. With 2 seconds left Coach Bailey of the Cardinals called a timeout. The plan was to get a three up, no matter what. On the inbounds play with no one open, a lob pass was given to Connor Sorenson and he had to make an attempt at a three-pointer. He barely missed, but Tristan Warbalow made a crazy rebound and reverse layup to get the ball in the hoop before the buzzer. Sadly, the score was still 70-71 and the Castleguards got the win. Trevor Cook from Washburn led his team with 44 points. For South Shore, Connor Sorenson led the team with 20 points, Tristan Warbalow followed with 16, Douglas Hipsher with 13, and Dallas Williams with 11 and the other players trailing behind. The Holiday Tournament was a great opportunity for both teams to keep playing and working hard over break. Huge thanks to Washburn school for hosting the tournament and inviting South Shore to come play. Hope everyone had a great holiday break!