Barbara Lawlor, Nederland. For any high school to have a good basketball team it has to have a feeder program: a middle school team, a club team, or even an Interscholastic Athletics team, an introduction to the sport.

Nederland Middle School students have entered the Interscholastic Athletics basketball league and are proving to not only enjoy the game but many of them already have the skills to begin playing.

This winter, Nederland High School does not have a girls' basketball team and several parent coaches and volunteers want to ensure that the program will not become extinct; that they can encourage and support enough middle-level students to rebuild Panther girls' basketball.

Thirteen middle school girls practice and host other schools' teams with the guidance of coaches Monte Miles and Casey Henrikson, who have worked with many elementary school programs. Miles has coached NHS girls' basketball in the past and is eager to see the IS program inspire a successful high school team.

Of the 13 current players, there are only a handful of eighth graders, not enough to form a high school team when they become freshmen, but enough to be a strong core group when other ninth graders decide to help bring back Ned girls’ basketball.