01/12/2012 New Players - 2012 Spring Ball Play 9th Grade Competition Our 9th grade team is looking for players to round out our team who have good ball handling skills and can bring some energy and enthusiasm to our team. We currently have a sound core of eight players who have played on 8th and 9th grade teams this winter season. The spring season will involve tournaments almost every weekend from March to June. The 9th grade team is looking to carry 12-15 players so that we can allow for other sporting conflicts and still field a competitive team. 8th grade players looking to play up, check us out. If you are interested, please contact coach allison@westfordlightning.com.

01/06/2012 Returning amd New Players - 2012 Spring Ball: Players and Parents, we are in the planning stages for our Spring 2012 season. We anticipate having 4 teams this spring made up of girls from 6th - 9th grade. Details on a Lightning Basketball information night and tryouts will be listed soon. Stay tuned.

2011 Fall Ball concludes Thanks go out to all players, coaches and parents who participated in our fall program. Quite a few of our girls impressed at the travel and school team tryouts. Their skill level was really apparent to all in attendance. Many of the girls showed up to their travel tryouts wearing their Lightning jerseys. As one parent at the travel tryout said, "The girls did not only looked great in those sharp Lightning jerseys, but they also kicked **** on the court." It was a good day to wear the Purple and Gold. See you all next spring.

2011 Fall Ball Players, our fall practices are set to begin soon (9/25). Keep yourself at the top of your game and get yourself ready for the upcoming travel and school seasons. Contact your coach for further info.

She's Baaack... And Ready to Wow the Players and Coaches Again! Back by popular demand Bentley University Assistant Coach C White. Coach C will work with the girls at our Wed Jun 15 Skills-n-Drills session 7-9p at Stony Brook. Those who attended last years session by Coach C were treated to a message on the importance of school, healthy body and commitment to personal goals, all while wowing the girls with her amazing ball handling skills workout. She then got the girls to completely focus into a series of high-energy skill drills fostering team and personal improvement. Expect the same if not more this year. Your players do not want to miss an evening with Coach C!

Summer 2011 - The Grey Ghost Basketball Clinic: This clinic will run from June 27 to June 30, 2011 and is open to all girls entering 3rd grade through girls entering 9th grade. Run by the Westford Academy Girls' Basketball program, the clinic seeks to teach basic basketball skills in a fun, fast-paced environment by combining drills, games, and team-building exercises. Please download the HOOP CAMP FLYER 2011 for more information or contact Russell Coward, the WA Girls' Basketball Coach, at rcoward@westfordk12.us. There are discounts for families interested in enrolling more than one daughter in the clinic. DOWNLOAD FLYER & REGISTRATION INFORMATION>>>

Summer 2011 - The Grey Ghost OFFENSIVE SKILLS CLINIC: This clinic will run from July 11 to July 14, 2011 and is open to all girls entering 5th grade through girls entering 9th grade. This clinic will focus on offensive skills only - dribbling, shooting, driving, and passing - through a variety of drills, games, and exercises. Please download the Hoops Clinic II 2011 flyer for more information or contact Russ Coward at rcoward@westfordk12.us. There are discounts for girls who attend the Grey Ghost Basketball Clinic in June and for families interested in sending more than one daughter to the clinic. REGISTRATION>>

Skills Clinic with WA Coach Coward - Wed May 11: Save the Date, as Coach Russ Coward and some of his Westford Academy girls will run a skills clinic on Wed May 11 for the girls. This is a great opportunity for the girls to experience the skill drills that have led to WA girls consistently being one of the teams to beat in the tough Dual County League. Stony Brook 7-9p Weds May 11th.

May 7-8: Lightning Bolts TakeTwo Strong defense leads to two wins and one loss. All players played excellent games. Elise and Sarah were strong on the boards consistently limiting our opponents to one shot. Our team pressure defense resulted in many steals and fast break lay ups for Karly and Molly. Jordan continued her sweet outside shooting by nailing down a couple of long range shots.

Working at the Car Wash - Sat May 7: Team Storm will be trading their basketballs for sponges, towels and a lot of soap to get your car clean as they are looking to raise funds to help them get Lightning Team jackets. Come out and support the girls on Sat May 7 at the Mobil at Minott's Corner on Rte 110 from 10am - 1pm.

May 1: Lightning Sparks Sizzle at Lady Gators Tourney: Solid performance and great teamwork from all the girls that played this weekend leading to a undefeated tourney record. Kelly C. scored 20 in Saturdays second game and Amanda S. scored 14 in Sundays first game. Amanda executed many exceptional power drives penetrating the zone defense resulting in baskets or foul shots. Mara B. had some great down low passes and defensive blocks. Tatiana V. and Katie C. pulled down many rebounds and worked strong at boxing out. Juliette N. and Taylor P. had great tenacity in stealing the ball. Bridget G. had some great outside shooting success. All the girls seamlessly transitioned to new positions based on player availability. Sundays last game had a roster of 5 but the Sparks still pulled a out a win. Juliette N. had a buzzer shot to seal the game. The girls hung tight and kept their heads during some very intense physical play. Lightning Sparks season record stands at 12-2.

May 1: Lightning Storm get 1st win: The Lightning Storm got their 1st win of the season at the Mill City Jam Fest. With only two games under their belt, the Storm was placed in a tough pool for tourney play. The Storm opened the tourney with two games Saturday against the eventual tourney champion and the 2nd best team in the 13U tourney. Both opponents season game experience shown as they gradually built up big leads to defeat the Storm. Regrouping on Sunday, the Storm played with more confidence and closed out the tourney with a win. Solid defense was key to the win as Sharon, Bridget, Julia and Quinn controlled the boards, and Megan, Morgan, Caroline and Abby provided the up front pressure.

Apr 18: Spring School Break: No practices this week as school gyms are closed. Players and Parents enjoy the time off.

Apr 17: Lightning Storm open 0-2: The Lightning Storm opened the season with some tough challenges in the NE Warriors One day tourney. Playing up a level in both games the team struggled in the first game to find its rhythm. Led by Sharon J on offense, the team played hard to the end. In the second game the team found its stride and led deep into the game. Led by Megan B and Bridget A on offense and with great rebounding by Abby C and Quinn S, the team battled to the end to just come up short. Game over game improvement was shown by Katie R, Caroline D and Morgan R. Despite the losses the team played well and the coaches are very encouraged for the remainder of the season.

Apr 17: Lightning Sparks keep flying - Now 8-0: The Sparks girls team played 4 games this past weekend. The girls had 2 blowout games against the Sanborn and Warrior teams. They had 2 very physical games against the NH Silver Bullets. Sundays game had a thin roster but the offense was dominated by inside passing by Hannah C to the KKC Twin Towers. Defensively we were led by Juliette N. & Bridget G's constant pressure and double digit steals. The Twin Towers shut down all inside shots while Tatiana V & Taylor P swept the perimeter and interrupted their offensive plays. All 4 of our offensive in bound plays were executed successfully and resulted in baskets. Our defensive press was extremely effective in breaking down their offensive plays. Other notable plays during the weekend were the great play reads and steals executed by Caley M & Hannah M along with the Team "A" Twins working the perimeter plays with Mara B. The Lightning prevailed using great teamwork and sportsmanship when the opponent stepped up their "physical" game. Excellent effort from all the girls that played this weekend. The girls were very proud wearing their crisp Lightning uniforms and professionally represented Westford in this tournament.

Apr 10: 1st Skill-n-Drills Night: Wed April 13 is our 1st Skills-n-Drills night. Come on out and improve your game!

Apr 10: Lightning Sparks open season 4-0: Coach MacKay's team opened their season by going 4-0 at the Lady Rivals Challenge. With two blowout wins and two close games. The team improved each game and seemed to gel as a unit with each game. Amanda S, Angela A, Bridget G, Hannah C, Tatiana V and the Special K twins turned in solid games to lead the Sparks.

Apr 10: Lightning Bolts open season 3-1: Coach Bigham's team opened their season by going 3-1 with two blowout wins and two close games. The highlight of the tournament was their game against CBA-BPE Heat (1). Down by 7 points with less than a minute to play. Two steals for lay ups and a jump shot pulled the Bolts to within 1 point. With a possession time-out with 7 seconds left, the Bolts inbounded the ball and and swung it around with enough time for Cammie D to electrify the crowd with a game winning shot at the buzzer.

Mar 1: Spring 2011 Player Evaluations: Grade 5-8 Player Evaluations for Spring 2011 season roster spots will be conducted on March 17 from 7-9P at the UMASS-Lowell Campus Recreation Center. In order for a girl to participate in the evaluation they will need to be a registered member of the AAU. Please contact us for information on our program and how to register your daughter for the evaluation. You will need to bring your AAU membership ID to the evaluation.

*** Grade 7-8 Players who participated in our fall 2010 program do not need to register as their AAU membership is still valid. Please contact us with any questions.

Potential new players are invited to view the "About Us" section to determine if Lightning Basketball is appropriate for your needs. An inquiry option to send for further information is on the bottom of the page.

Spring 2011 Season: Information about Lightning Basketball for Spring 2011 will be posted online soon. Players from last year will be contacted shortly about player evaluations for this years teams.

Potential new players are invited to view the "About Us" section to determine if Lightning Basketball is appropriate for your needs. An inquiry option to send for further information is on the bottom of the page.

Skills-n-Drills Nights : Based on the positive feedback we received, once again, Lightning Basketball is planning to have "Skills-n-Drills" nights where on occasion we will have invited guests run specialized clinics to improve the girls game.

Last year the two clinics run by Womens Basketball Asst Coach at Bentley University, C White and Westford Academy Girls Basketball Head coach Russ Coward were both high energy, and fun clinics for the girls.