Sixth Grade “Fantastic Five” Has Amazing Season

Cover Photo by Brian Frazzini

Sports teams have to play shorthanded and face adversity all the time, but the Stockbridge girls’ 6th grade basketball team proved that all it takes is some hard work and smart play to have a successful season despite lacking players.

The Panthers took it to another level this season as they competed with just five players, not in just one game, but in all 11 games they played, and came away with an amazing 9-2 record to show for it.

With no bench player, the Stockbridge team of Evelynn Johns, Layna St. John, Makenna Porter, Kayden Kunzleman, and Lillian Topping played every minute of every game during the season and appeared to take notes from the Stockbridge varsity girls’ team that played with just six players for most of its season.

More amazing than the 9-2 overall record is the fact that the Panthers went 7-0 in the regular season and won the North Division and were seeded first for the Red Cedar tournament.

The regular season saw the Panthers pull out a couple of close wins over Williamston (17-11) and Haslett (15-9) and blow out some teams Morrice (28-8), Grand Ledge (46-5), and Fowlerville (36-6), but the highlight came when the Panthers beat Okemos on a last-second buzzer-beater three-pointer by Johns to win 12-10.

Going into the tournament the Fantastic Five ran into some issues in having to play multiple games in a day after single games through the regular season.

They opened the tournament with a win over Eaton Rapids before dropping their first game of the season to Holt in the second round.

Stockbridge stayed alive with a win in their first game on day 2, but again ran out of gas in the second game and ending the tournament with a 2-2 record.

The team was coached by Austin Perkins and Nicole Porter.

All season Panthers followed the mantra of “Teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one” – Mike Krzyzewski.

The Fantastic Five shows that the future is bright for Stockbridge girls’ basketball with this group of amazing young ladies.