Fifth grade girl scores team high 14 points!

CNI Newspapers, South Milwaukee
Saturday, February 21, 2009
(written as class assignment)

It was just another Saturday morning recreation league basketball game for Mackenzie Meyers, or so she thought. Mackenzie, a fifth grade student at Rawson Elementary School, suited up for the last game of the 2008/09 girls basketball season in hopes of a big win. This win would leave her team, the Rockets, tied for first with the Hornets.

The consumption of a banana and small bowl of cereal is Mackenzie's traditional before game breakfast, according to her parents. She is an incredibly focused ten-year-old girl and one of very few words prior to hitting the basketball court. Her father commented, "No matter the weather, Mackenzie laces up her mid-tops and works up her snap-crackle-pop with a drive way warm up." A shoveled path and swishing a hoop through snowflakes or dodging raindrops to make sure the perfect layup doesn't slip away, gets Meyers' head in the game.

The Rawson school gymnasium was filled with anxious spectators sitting on the edge of their seats awaiting what they all hoped would be a nail-biter of a game.

The first quarter, 8 minutes long, seemed to pass in a flash. In the final seconds Meyers put up a shot from 15 feet and sank it to tie the game at 6-6. According to the Rockets coach, Brian Stueck, the girl’s nerves needed to be worked out during the first quarter.

The second quarter played out similar to the first. Meyers scored another hoop to bring her point total in the first half to 8. In the final seconds of the second quarter, Isabel Rodriguez sank a shot to put the Rockets ahead by two, 10-8. The entire Rockets team was pumped up. Coach Stueck said adrenaline was flowing, and the team’s focus was intact.

Both teams suffered minor injuries. As seen by game officials, spectators, and coaches, Rockets' player Samantha Smith experienced a poke in the eye during a heated struggle to regain possession, and Emily Johnson of the Hornets suffered a scraped knee during a jump ball scramble. Both coaches took advantage of time-outs and both girls missed only minutes for recuperation. Players from both teams displayed true sportsmanship coming to the aid of the injured players and helping them up from the floor.

The lead bounced back and forth the majority of the game, but in the final minutes Mackenzie Meyers exploded with the luck ‘o the shot. One after another… swish. Meyers scored 6 of her 14 points in the last quarter and became the lead scorer of Saturday’s game. “Meyers scored a game high 14 points,” said her coach.

The Rawson Rockets defeated the Hornets 18-14, leaving the two teams tied for first place in the South Milwaukee 5th/6th grade recreation league.

Not only did the Rockets bring home a tied for first standing to their elementary school, it comes on the heels of the fifth grade Rawson Vikings flag football team placing first in the fall with a 6-0 record. It should not go unmentioned that Mackenzie Meyers was the quarterback of the undefeated football team.

Will South Milwaukee see this team of girls bring them to the State Tournament in another six years? One thing is for sure, sporting enthusiasts need to keep an eye on Mackenzie Meyers.