Phoebe Sophomore Year ~ Basketball

 ** Guest Blogger **

Eric Hendrickson

The JV girl team had a pretty good year.  They were a little up and down, but for the most part played some really good basketball. Team picture includes the varsity, JV, and freshmen girls' teams, and three team managers.

Game #1 vs. McPherson 12/4/25 (Won)

Phoebe shot a pretty good percentage on her free throws.  I would guess she made 2/3 of her free throws.  She also defends and rebounds well.

Game #2 vs. Salina South 12/6/25 (lost by one)

Phoebe didn't play much in game #2 and #3.  She had a conversation with the coach after the 3rd game.  The conversation went well.  I was very pleased with her for having the courage to do this.

Game #3 vs. Eisenhower 12/9/25 (lost)

Game #4 vs. Hutchinson 12/16/25 (won by 20!)

Phoebe started this game and every game after this one.

Game #5 vs. Maize 12/19/25 (lost)

Santa visited Campus High School.

Game #6 vs. Valley Center 1/9/26 (won) and guest played with the C team (won)

Typically there is a Varsity team, JV team, and Freshmen team.  Some teams don't have enough Freshmen for a team, so they play a C team.  Phoebe played both JV (4 quarters) and C team (2 quarters).

Guest played with the C team on 1/10/26 vs. Andale and Eisenhower (lost to Andale, beat Eisenhower)

Game #7 vs. Derby 1/13/26 (lost)

Game #8 vs. Andover Central 1/16/26 (lost) and guest played with the C team (lost)

Game #9 vs. Maize South 1/20/26 (lost)

No pictures - Stacee was at Silas's game in Winfield.

Game #10 vs. Salina South 2/3/26 (lost) and guest played with the C team (won)

Phoebe had four points in the C team game.

Game #11 vs. Valley Center 2/6/26 Homecoming (won) and guest played with the C team (won)

Game #12 vs. Derby 2/10/26 (lost) and guest played with the C team (lost)

Game #13 vs. Goddard 2/13/26 guest played with the C team

Game #14 vs. Hutchinson 2/17/26 (lost)

Game #15 vs. Maize 2/20/26 guest played with the C team (overtime ended in a tie, instead of a second overtime)

This was a good, hard fought game.  The game lasted so long that we missed the start of the varsity girls' game.

Game #16 vs. Maize South 2/24/26 (lost)

Phoebe played a lot of post, which meant she had to play against some large, tall girls.  She played really tough, gritty basketball. Stacee likes to say she was the "rebounding machine" for her team. And, we like to call her "Phe-Beast".

Game #17 vs. Salina Central 2/26/26 (lost)

Over the off season, I would like to work with Phoebe on her post game and ball handling skills.  If she can improve these two aspects of her game, she will be well positioned to play some varsity next year. Great sophomore basketball season, Phoebe!

Our February 2026

 Phoebe taught herself to crochet. She started out making lots of granny squares, then put them all aside and started lots of other crochet projects. Recently she pulled out all the granny squares and made them into a granny square blanket. It came out very nice!

We got some cold weather and about 5 inches of snow in early February. When it got a tiny bit warmer (tolerable to be outside longer than one minute), and some of the snow had already stared to melt, Eric took Silas to a nearby hill for some sledding. They didn't last long because the snow had already gotten so thin. They had fun though, but came home covered in a lot of dirt and mud.

Sarah and Vincent came home on Friday, February 6th to help crown this year's Campus Homecoming King and Queen between the varsity girls' and boys' basketball games vs. Valley Center.

We made our regular Super Bowl squares game to play amongst ourselves while watching the Super Bowl. We ate good snacks and watched a pretty boring game of football, laughed at some commercials together, and watched the alternative TPUSA Super Bowl halftime show. Phoebe was our overall winner many times during our squares game and collecting lots of prizes for herself.

Eric and I helped Owen move to his new apartment in Manhattan on Saturday, February 14th. We gave him our couch from our living room. I got a good laugh watching them get this couch maneuvered up the staircase and into his apartment... Pivot. PiVoT. PIVOT! Before heading for home we took Owen, Sarah, and Natasha out to a Valentine's lunch at Olive Garden.

For dinner on Valentine's Day our church hosted a Valentine's Banquet with all the set-up and serving done by our youth group.

Sarah and Owen made a special trip to see Lindsee, EP and Will. They asked Will to be the ring bearer.

We went to the new "I Can Only Imagine 2" movie. It was EXCELLENT!

Last fall Silas tried out for the KMEA All-State Middle Level Choir. There were 930 students from all over Kansas who auditioned for 160 spots in the choir. Silas was one of three selected from HWMS to be part of the KMEA 2026 All-State Middle Level Choir. The choir practiced all day on Friday, February 27th then performed their songs that evening at the Century Two building downtown.

Silas played in his last basketball game of the 7th grade season on Saturday, February 28th. After the game, later that day we met some of his cheering section for lunch, laughs, and games at the Pizza Ranch.

Our January 2026

Silas's choir, the Silverbacks, got to sing the National Anthem at a Thunder Hockey game.

Silas was selected to represent his school with 4 other 7th grade students in the Patriot League Spelling Bee. He was nervous but made it through to the third round. In total there may have only been five rounds before it was down to only two 7th grade students left. It was narrowed down way more quickly than I had expected it to be. Below, is a picture of the six 8th grade students (back row) and the five 7th grade students that represented our middle school. His practice round word was "pond". Round one word was "toppled". Round two word was "commonplace". Round three word was "insubstantial".

Silas got his braces off in January! Yeah!!!! He was super excited to be able to eat sticky, crunchy foods and to be able to drink dark colored drinks again. Now our entire house is finally braces free and wearing our retainers every night.

Silas has four Cope's Tree Frogs that he caught on his own last fall. He has them in a terrarium in his room. We feed them crickets, meal worms in various stages, and other small bugs. This green colored one pictured is a male and croaks throughout the day. He is named Jase and has been coming out of hiding amongst the leaves to sit under the heat lamp during the daytime hours.

One day, when our metal wood carrier was empty, our cat climbed right in and cozied up for a nap near the warm stove. Normally she sleeps on a nearby rug and soaks up the warmth, but today was a new one!

Silas, Sarah, and Phoebe each picked out their shirt memory bears that we made from Mom's old button-up shirts. I'm glad we have these done and they have them to look at or hug and remind them of Nanee and how much she loved them all and all the sweet memories they have of/with her.