The Doherty Bubble

Doherty is good. Really good. They've lost once all season. That makes sense given their level of commitment. With the pandemic, the season wasn't guaranteed, so the lady Spartans decided to create their own bubble. They go to school online, and they leave only to play and practice, "We already had a shortened season. To play, I decided to just stay completely online. Not only to limit the risk of getting Covid-19, but limit me getting quarantined, and having to wait two weeks to play," says Doherty guard, Payton Sterk.

The team bought in right away and that decision is paying off, "It's like when you go to workout to get better. You do the extra things to get better. This year, staying at home was an extra thing you had to do to get better, in a way," says Doherty guard, Mackenzie Noll.

For seniors like Mackenzie Noll, this is their last chance to play high school basketball and the fact her teammates made the sacrifice speaks volumes, "I know everyone wants to go to school. I know they wanna see their friends. It really means a lot to us that they decided to stay an extra however many months online to protect the team," says Noll.

They have no intention of doing all this work just to get knocked out early, they're ready to make a deep run, "We are good. We're gonna make it far. Potentially being in the top five at the end is just really good. I think it motivates all of us to get to the elite eight, or get to the final four," says Sterk.