Many winter athletes returned to The Hill School’s campus on Jan. 15 to begin the Low-Residency Program in order to compete for their sport. Sixth former Sydney Floyd returned a day later, on Jan. 16, to begin training and playing with the girls basketball team.

Floyd usually competes with the indoor track team during the winter; however, that was not an option this year. She chose to play basketball as it allows her to stay active and spend time with friends on campus.

Floyd said, “I wanted to stay in shape, and I haven’t played basketball since probably seventh, eighth grade, so why not. It’s senior year, and I can have some fun times and make some memories.”

The girls basketball team follows a schedule, shared by Floyd, that switches every other day. She wakes up at either 7:45 a.m. or 8:20 a.m. for a daily health check before heading to breakfast. After the team eats, the girls get time allotted for their H-Term projects.

Work time for H-term is 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., and Floyd uses this block to work on her independent project studying astronomy and the northern lights. She is able to focus on that and achieve progress daily.

After H-term work, Floyd and the girls basketball team head to lunch around noon, followed by practice. The team will either have practice from 1:45 p.m. to 3:45 p.m., with a lift at 4 p.m. afterwards, or practice from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., with a lift at 3:15 p.m. beforehand.

After dinner, the girls have check-in at 7:45 p.m. and again at 9:45 p.m., with time in between to hang out and bond on the Seal patio or in the Headmasters Garden. Floyd then said that they have lights out at 11 p.m. and have to stay in their dorms, which is not much different than the normal routine when everyone is at school.

“It’s definitely hard to hang out with other people because all of our schedules are very busy,” Floyd said. She also mentions how this is because it’s cold outside, especially when it snows, and how everyone is exhausted from training and practicing earlier in the day.

Although Floyd and the girls basketball team see others around campus mostly in the dining hall or the athletic building, there are times where they can hang out with other friends during the free time they have at night. Floyd says that this is fun, but that it doesn’t happen every day.

Practice for the girls basketball team includes drills, full-court scrimmages, conditioning and more. On days with lifts, training is a little bit lighter which allows for harder, more intense days when there is no lifting, according to Floyd.

“We don’t have any games scheduled for now,” Floyd said, but the team has had two intersquad scrimmages in the past. This has allowed the team to work on game-like situations and other skills, Floyd said, adding that she is having fun with everyone.

The team is quite small this year, with only nine girls, but Floyd said this allows them to become closer and bond more easily. Although it’s going to be hard if the girls have a game, Floyd mentions that they are able to make things work and have fun while doing it.

“It was so easy to bond with each other. We got close the second day we were here, and now we are all good friends,” Floyd said, adding: “It helps that we have such a small squad.”