The varsity basketball teams at Greene County High School have reached the break for the holidays. Coach Tori Ogden’s girls’ team is 0-11 while Coach Chris Nelson’s boys’ squad has a 1-9 mark after winning its final December game. The 0-20 combined start to the season before the boys defeated Saydel (Des Moines) was unprecedented for Greene County basketball, and while there’s no one thing to point to, the competition has something to do with it.

Although the opponents of the two teams have played relatively the same schedule, it’s not been identical. What IS the same is the winning percentage of the opponents, at 65%. That translates into understanding the Rams have played some, not all, really good teams. At the break, the girls have played undefeated teams in Panorama (Panora) and Roland-Story (Story City). Eight of the 11 teams the girls have played have won more games than they’ve lost. For the Greene County boys, seven of the 10 opponents have winning records and another sits at even .500. R-S is undefeated at the break while Nevada, South Hamilton (Jewell), and Kuemper Catholic (Carroll) each have just one loss.

The Rams resume playing games on Friday, Jan. 5 in Jefferson vs. Perry in a Heart of Iowa Activities Conference girl/boy doubleheader. Those games can be heard on KG98 and streamed on www.raccoonvalleyradio.com.