PVO girls’ basketball to serve pancakes on Sunday

BY DANI TIETZ
dani@mahometnews.com

Who doesn’t enjoy pancakes on a Sunday morning?

Whether a farmer is looking to fill up before going into the fields or a family is hungry after church, the Prairieview-Ogden Junior High girls’ basketball team will be serving pancakes from 8 a.m. to noon on Oct. 13 at the Royal Community Building.

“We keep a rolling balance from the fundraiser and we use the funds for warm-ups, T-shirts, dinners and anything related to the team,” head coach David Lannert said.

Preparation for the pancake breakfast is handled by the parents, but aside from cooking on Sunday, the team interacts with the guests doing everything from serving, taking money, cleaning up, doing dishes or just keeping people company.

“The girls get a lot out of it interacting with people of all ages from the community,” Lannert said.  “It gives them a chance to tell people who they are and how their season is going and it also gives them time away from their phones.”

Lannert said the success of the breakfast is because the Prairieview-Ogden community supports the students.

“We have such a tight-knit group anytime you have something like a fundraiser going on, you can guarantee you will get a good turnout,” Lannert said.

By Monday, the teams will be back on the court.

Both seventh- and eighth-grade PVO teams are 5-2 overall and 4-1 in the Three Rivers Conference.

“The seventh-graders are a scrappy bunch and really get after it on the defensive end,” Lannert said. “They generate a lot of their points off of turnovers, which lead to fast-break points on the other end.

“The eighth-graders are a veteran group who have been playing together since the fifth grade. They are excellent on the defensive end and will score a bunch in transition. Both teams are in great shape and like to get out and run and that’s what makes the games exciting.”

Both teams are looking to win conference championships in 2019 and to go deep into the IESA tournament. In 2018, the seventh-grade squad came up just short of a trip to state.

Lannert continues to work with his squad on sound fundamentals and overall knowledge on the game to prepare them for high school.

Aside from the day-to-day growth amongst teammates, Lannert said that the seventh- and eighth-grade squads are fun to coach this year.

“What I really like about this group this year is the chemistry,” he said. “It’s not very often you get the seventh- and eighth-graders to agree on everything, but this year there have been very little disagreements and it makes practices much more enjoyable.”