The North St. Paul "Quitters"

There’s a minute remaining in the second half. Erik Steele
and Nick Jones, the top two scorers for the game, are out on the court. Erik
weakly chest passes the ball over to Nick Jones as he trudges lazily down the
court, clearly bored.
The end
of a basketball game is usually the most intense part of the game, if the score
is close. In this case, the score is 86 to 31, North St. Paul in the lead. This
last minute of the game is anything but intense seeing as Maplewood has lost
all hope in winning.
“The
Quitters” is the name of the North St. Paul in house basketball team. Every
player on the team previously played for the North High school team, but
decided to quit and create their own in house team. During their first game
against Maplewood, quitting was the last thing on their minds.
“Our
main goal as a team is to achieve the state in house championship at the end of
the season,” explains Johnny Economy, “We have all played together before, so
we understand what it takes to work together and come out with a win.”
“The
Quitters” are more of an independent team. They lack a competitive coaching
staff, but rather leave it up to themselves to carry the team along. “I
couldn’t play in Sunday’s game because of an intense morning migraine, but you
better believe I was still there on the sidelines, cheering my team along,”
says Sam Shipstad.
Although
this group of athletes quit from the school team, they have no intensions to
quit from this team. They have great chemistry together and most of all they
have fun while playing a sport they all love.