The Fighting Irish Look to Bounce Back by Joe Githens

SEATTLE – The O’Dea Fighting Irish will have to fight through their biggest adversity of the year and get back to another winning streak.

Covid has affected everyone the past two years, and it is giving the Fighting Irish a big test this season. Over winter break, all Metro basketball was put on pause for two weeks. The Irish have been a little rusty in the first couple games since returning.

On Saturday January 8th, the Irish played the Ballard Beavers and won by 15. Looking closer, though, one can see some areas that aren't so bright. The Irish put up 12 fewer points than their season average, and it was to a struggling 4-6 Ballard team. The victory improved their season record to 9-1 before facing their Metro rival, Garfield Bulldogs.

Senior Guard, Takeo Staten-Sylvester, said it best, “Garfield’s always been a tough matchup and should be a good game with two of the top Metro teams.”

Unfortunately for the Fighting Irish, Garfield couldn’t miss. The Bulldogs started running away with the game in the fourth quarter, beating the Irish 98-61. This was only the second loss of the season for the Irish, who lost to Auburn prior to winter break. O’Dea’s losses came from the 1 and 2 ranked teams in the state, each in their respective classification.

The lessons that the Irish can learn from these losses will help them towards the end of the year when the games get closer and opponents get harder.

Staten-Sylvester said, “We obviously didn’t want to lose those two games but it's better it happened now instead of in Metro playoffs or State. We learned more from those losses than we did from any other wins this season.”

There is still plenty of season left for the Irish to bounce back and build some momentum before postseason. Look for Staten-Sylvester, and senior guard Owen Moriarty to lead the team to another successful season and bring back the state championship to O’Dea.