By Stacey Fisher
Freelance contributor
Special to the Tribune

The Skyline Thunderbird Boys’ Team was home in the Thunderdome for a regular season game against the Chargers of Burrton in a rather unorthodox Friday night game. The Varsity Boys’ game was a standalone event in that Burrton has been fighting a numbers game in both middle and high school. Therefore, they did not field any girl’s or junior varsity boys’ teams. The 73-11 contest was a confidence builder for Skyline with an opportunity to get many players in the game.

To celebrate Elementary Night, the Skyline pre-K through second grade students sang the National Anthem to the absolute delight of all in attendance. This third-annual event was sponsored by the T-Bird Club and highlights the unique nature of Skyline teaching preschool through high school all in one building. The performance came after weeks of practice that began (for the older kids) with a line by line explanation of the anthem to help impress upon the youth the gravity of the event.

“The boys moved the ball up the court really well which created easy looks for us,” said Skyline Head Coach Hagen Turner. “We still need to convert better on our high-percentage shots to be able to compete in close contests. We played all 12 players and 9 contributed to the scoring total, but sophomore Matt Bair threw in 15 with most of those points being near the rim.”

The Thunderbirds have four more regular-season games over the next two weeks, starting on Tuesday, February 10 and culminating with Homecoming on Friday, February 21.

“We have had a very strenuous schedule this year, playing a lot of ranked teams, and our last four games aren’t any easier.” said Turner. “The boys show up every day and prepare like we are the number 1 ranked team, and I commend them for that. Now, we need to go put things together for four quarters and give our last opponents a run for their money. Let’s get things rolling before Sub-State…. GO BIRDS!”