Editor’s note: Ally Hefner is the new sports broadcasting intern at Northern Vermont University Johnson and will be joining the Basement Medicine staff as sports editor. She is also a part of the Badgers softball team, on which she plays both second and the outfield.

Although a small university, NVU-J has a substantial number of people within the athletic department. Each person works hard to try to keep everything running as smoothly as possible. Among those hard workers is Brian Slater, who has helped build up every team at Johnson as best as he can. I know many are very appreciative of everything he does.

Let’s now get into some of all the sports-related news.

First, I want to congratulate the 16 fall athletes who were named on the all NAC academic team. Another shout out goes to the following winter athletes from both the Women’s and Men’s basketball teams: Raymond Baka, two-time winner of defensive player of the week while also getting named as best rookie of the week; Gabby Wardell also was named defensive athlete of the week. While also leading two 1st place standings of all of NCAA D3, she holds first in total rebounds per game and in total defensive rebounds per game as a Center.

Our final winter athlete that deserves to be recognized is Paris Atuahene, who holds two first-place leading titles in all of NCAA D3. She is first in the country for total points in a game, out of 29 games, while also being first in the country for free throws made as a starting point guard.

These three players, and of course with help from their teammates, have helped tremendously in the badger’s success for the 2022-2023 season. Women’s basketball, which has had quite a lot of success so far, is currently holding a record of 12-8 overall and a record of 5-5 in conference. They are now holding the 4th spot in their division.

The men’s basketball team had a lot of success at the beginning of the season. They won their first three games but since then they are hitting a rough patch now that they are playing the most important games of their season.

The men’s team is holding a record of 8-12 and a 3-7 record in their conference. The men’s team is currently in last in their conference and are at a substantial risk of not making it to playoffs. This would be a first for head coach Alfred Johnson who has made it to playoffs every year since being named head coach.

If the Badgers wanted any chance of making it back into playoff talk, they needed to win both of their conference games last weekend. Unfortunately, they were unable to secure either win in their matches on Friday and Saturday, resulting in the Badgers playoff probability to become almost nonexistent now.

It is certainly a shame to see the team start strong, just for them to come up short in the end. Hopefully, this won’t be the end for the men’s basketball team, but it certainly looks like it might be.

The Badgers fight to win doesn’t end with them. Our winter and spring sports are starting back up again, and we kicked it off with the Men’s Volleyball team. They played their first game of the new season on Jan. 29, when they played a double header against the Fisher College Falcons. They came off strong, winning both their matches in three sets. These games were record breaking, especially for junior athlete Eli Harden, who broke the school record of most assists, with now having 406 assists and it only being his second season as a Badger.

Not only do we have Men’s volleyball underway; the Softball team is kicking it off with indoor practices. They are currently getting ready for their Myrtle Beach trip, when we will be competing against several different softball teams to prepare us for when it really counts, conference games. The head coach, Jeffery Arnold, has been working rigorously on making sure that the team has everything they need to prepare for this upcoming season. The last couple of seasons for the softball team haven’t been completely successful for the Badgers, but it is a new year, and there are many fresh faces, with some old faces as the team looks to fight for the conference title. During this entire school year, the softball team has yet to win a conference title. Hopefully, that will change this spring.

On a personal note, I want to thank the following people for being so extremely helpful in my journey through the real world: Gregory Eckman, Brian Slater, Dominic Phelps, Jeff Arnold, and most importantly, my amazing mother.