The Fountain Hills Middle School girls basketball team went 12-0 and won the Cactus Christian School League championship this year. The young Falcons also went undefeated and were league champions last year.

According to eighth graders Taleigha Bonnaha, Zoe Jagodzinski and Kynzi Schaunaman, the Falcons cruised through their regular season, winning a majority of their games by large margins. The three said the championship game this season was the closest game they had in the last two seasons.

“Before playoffs, we beat everyone by like 30,” Jagodzinski said. “Our championship game was our only close game. We won 31-21.”

The Falcons were down early in the championship game and fought from behind to win. The Falcons typically didn’t fall behind their opponents, but the players credited head coach Amanda Baca for helping build up their determination and mental toughness.

While the Falcons usually scored a lot of points, Schaunaman said their defense has gone under the radar in the past two seasons.

“Our defense always turns into offensive layups,” Schaunaman said. “I think we just surprise them. [Bonnaha] is so aggressive and she gets so many steals, just like a lot of our players, but I feel like other players aren’t ready for our explosiveness on the court.”

The Falcons had 11 players this season, and nine of them were eighth graders. Jagodzinski and Schaunaman played organized basketball for their first time as seventh graders, but they stepped up as starters this year.

“Even though we lost some valuable players to the high school, I think we were able to grow with one another and help each other improve,” Schaunaman said. “During the games, Markayla Shirley kept yelling at me, telling me to do better and helping me figure out where I needed to be, and I think that really helped.”

Shirley, another eighth grader, was a starter along with Jagodzinski and Schaunaman. Bonnaha is a club player, and she would start and play a majority of the game. Saedee Smith was the only seventh grader to start on the team.

Smith is the younger sister to senior Soliel Smith and freshman Seilah Smith on the high school basketball team. According to Bonnaha, she is cousins with the Smiths and freshman Kaylee Lewis, also on the high school team, and Bonnaha is looking forward to playing with them again.

The middle school players will be instant additions at the high school next year. The Falcons will still have Baca as head coach, and there were more eighth grade players than high school players this year.

The transition to high school won’t be seamless for the incoming freshmen, but they believe they are ready. This summer, on top of preparing for freshman classes, the basketball players will practice in June and prepare to start their high school athletic careers.