WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – They are the true road warriors. The Alexandria Lady Purple Ghosts basketball team has played the entire 2022-23 season on the road while the school is constructing a new state-of-the art basketball complex.
For coach Tom Murphy, it’s brought a number of challenges for him and his players.
“So, not having a gym has been exhausting,” he said. “We practice 7 to 9 at Hammond so we have to take a bus there and a bus back. So early nights I’m getting home after 10 o’clock. The girls get home, they still have homework to do. It’s been a long road to get to this point.”
Despite all of the adversity, the Lady Purple Ghosts have put together one of their best seasons in recent memory, making it to the Frontier League D Division championship game and posting a 10-8 overall record.
For the seniors on the team, not having the opportunity to finish their careers on their home court was tough.
“It’s been hard,” forward Madi Davidson said. “At first, I didn’t want to do it because I wanted a home court, but it honestly has made us a lot closer and I feel like we get along better, and it’s just been a learning experience for everyone.”
“It was really rough at first, but having my team with me and already playing with them ever since I was in 5th grade, it made it kind of easy to just have friendships with everyone,” center Bridget Watson said.
After starting out the season 1-5, the Lady Purple Ghosts could have thrown in the towel with all the obstacles they faced.
Instead, the team won 9 of their last 12 games and will be a force to be reckoned with in sectionals.
The players say the success they have had is somewhat surprising to even them.
“I think it’s surprised,” junior guard Molly Edgar said. “I think a lot of schools went in thinking — and even us included — that we went in thinking ‘oh, we don’t have a gym, we might not do so well,’ and we’ve managed to pick up that pace and we’ve ended up with a winning record.”
“Yes and no, because I believe we could do it and we finally just got the hang of it and started working together and it worked,” junior guard Ciara Dawley said.
“I think just pushing through together, we just kept pushing like we did last year, started off bad but we’re ending strong together,” said Sincerity DIange, a sophomore forward/guard.
And with the success they’ve had on the road this season, the Alexandria Lady Purple Ghosts know they can surprise some people and challenge for a Section III title this season.
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