A couple of weeks ago, the boys JVC basketball team welcomed O’Dea into our home gym. With the the stress of finals, they took their first loss of the season.

All students have a lot on their plate during finals week. Taking on one of their biggest rivals, made it even more stressful for the freshman.

“As a freshman it’s especially hard,” said Andrew Holloman. “because this is our first time having finals, so it was a lot to try and focus on at one time.”

The boys worked really hard, but for the first time this season, they were not able to walk out with a win.

“We worked so hard to prepare for this game,” said freshman Sam Houck. “It’s sad to see this as the outcome.”

All season , the players knew that O’Dea would be a challenging team to play, but they had it on their mind since November. Coming out with a loss did not bring the team too far down.

“We have to get past this first loss,” said Chris Dykman, “and finish the season as strong as we began.”

The boys are taking the goals they had from the beginning of the season and stepping them up so they can beat Franklin tomorrow at Blanchet at 5:45 for their last game.

Since the loss to O’Dea, the JVC boys basketball team has taken three more wins against Eastside, Cleveland and Garfield.