Parks and Rec Panthers Sam Kendrick, Hunter Hargrove and Eric Carroll.

Saturday marked the end of another successful Parks and Rec season. The teams opened the season with their first practice sessions during the week of Oct. 23 and the season closed with members getting participation trophies and enjoying pizza parties around town.

Over the course of the season many players improved their basketball skills. And Sox player Alex Carlson thought the season for her was a very enjoyable experience.

“I got to play with a lot of my friends from school,” Carlson said. “I had a lot of fun.”

Carlson also said she learned a thing or two about the game of basketball.

“I learned a lot about teamwork,” she said.

Carlson noted that being a good teammate was an integral part to the improvement and success of a team. One area of play where Carlson said she improved on most was the mental part of the game.

“I got better about not thinking what to do and just reacting,” she said.

Carlson did plenty of quick reacting during her game Saturday. She played tough defense and had a hand in creating turnovers. She often times led the Sox on the fastbreak, which led to some quick field goals.

Sox coach Brent Lamb admired his team’s effort and hustle on the court Saturday. He noted that with so many kids participating in the Parks and Rec program, each kid had a unique opportunity to learn the game of basketball and have fun at the same time.

“The Parks and Rec program is great,” Lamb said. “At this level it’s really all about teaching and having fun.”

Lamb has been a coach for 10 years. But this season he coached the Sox with the help of his daughter Emily.

Emily, junior at Lawrence High, played for her dad during much of her time in Parks and Rec basketball.

Emily said she had a lot of fun helping her dad coach, and having been a Parks and Rec player herself, she could relate to the fact that many of the kids had different basketball skills and playing experience. This was something her dad said was one of the challenges of coaching.

“Many of these kids have played a long time and some of them haven’t played much at all,” Brent Lamb said. “It’s a challenge to manage both.”

To help gauge where his team was individually, Lamb said early in the season the Sox practiced a lot with basic fundamental skills like dribbling, passing and shooting. He said he could then focus on the little things like teaching them to pass it to an open player and then shoot.

Lamb said his group gradually improved over the course of the season, and seeing them gel into a team made for fun times for coaches and players.

“The girls had a blast this season,” Lamb said. “It was really a lot of fun.”