WICHITA, Kan.—
When Lindsey Medina was in kindergarten, she didn’t even know what the basketball was. A friend asked her to join a team, and she decided to give it a try. Now, as a junior at Kapaun Mt. Carmel, she is a starter on varsity and loves the sport.“The thing I enjoy most about basketball has always been being a part of a team,” Medina said. “I love being around people who love the game as much as I do, and are willing to work hard to win.”
While continuing to play basketball and learning more and more about the sport, Medina also learned what her individual strengths are, and how to use them to her advantage.
“My biggest strength has always been ball handling,” Medina said. “Being small works to my advantage. It makes it easier to weave in and out of the defense and get the ball wherever it needs to be.”
To better herself at the sport, Medina has also learned to acknowledge her weaknesses and work to overcome them.
“My biggest weakness is shooting,” Medina said. “As a kid I shot the ball with two hands because I was too small to get it to the basket and it worked for me. [My] coach told me I needed to learn to shoot properly, so I began working with him after practice to correct my form.”
Re-learning how to shoot was hard work, but has ultimately paid off.
“It was very hard to change a habit that had been in place since kindergarten,” Medina said. “But after shooting for many hours and paying attention to my form, my shooting has gotten much better.”
Now that the school season is starting, Medina is excited to get back to playing basketball and working hard this season so her team can be successful.
“To be successful this year we will have to continue to play up tempo,” Medina said. “Our defense will need to be unstoppable, defense wins games. In every aspect of the game, we will have to be more aggressive.”
This season, Medina has high hopes for her team but, overall, she is just excited to be playing with her team again.
“We hope to get back to the state tournament,” Medina said. “But that's a long time from now, so we'll just take the season one game at a time and work hard to hopefully get there. This season I’m just looking forward to playing again. Right now, I’m just looking forward to game day.”
Medina believes hard work and dedication is a big part of basketball. Over the years, she has worked hard to perfect the necessary skills and become a better player.
“To be a successful basketball player, you obviously have to be athletic, but it’s more than that,” Medina said. “You have to be dedicated. You have to work on individual skills as often as possible, and work hard at practice every day. You have to have heart, and go 100% all the time. And you have to do whatever you can to be the best player you can be.”
