A cutthroat Christmas tradition

Holidays are known for traditions. Decorating the Christmas tree, donning hideous sweaters and driving through extravagant lights displays are common this time of year.

The Grafton High School girls’ basketball team years ago started its own event held each December.

Coach Matt D’Amato gets a bunch of gingerbread house kits and has players in the entire high school program break into small groups and construct creative masterpieces.

The activity has taken on a life of its own. Players look forward to it every year. The intensity can seemingly reach the same level as on the court.

It’s not just a fun event; it’s a competition.

Players hide their houses with cardboard so others can’t steal their intellectual property. Ideas behind the homes run the gamut.

This year, an upset of sorts took place. A junior varsity squad won.

The trio of Madison James, Brooklyn LaMontagne and Olivia Feinberg — all freshmen — won first place.

“Theirs was just done the neatest, I think,” senior guard Marissa Morgan said.

A varsity trio was runner-up.

Sophomore Melanie Morgan, Marissa’s younger sister, along with Brynlee Hildebrand and Lili Verplancke came up with a gingerbread theme.

“We had a little gingerbread (person)coming home to the gingerbread house. We put lots of little trees on the outside,” Melanie Morgan said.

The gingerbread people, she said, had run a traditional Christmas errand.

“They were out getting the trees,” she said.

Her older sister — a team captain — wasn’t as successful with her partner, team manager Evelyn Schaetz.

“My house collapsed,” Marissa Morgan said. “It just fell on us.”

Unlike Morgan’s house, the competition was on level ground this year. In the past, D’Amato had run skills competitions in the past with winners receiving accessories to add to their home construction, but not this time.

“We gave them all the same kits this year so they were all starting with the exact same tools to build their houses,” he said.

“We had a lot of good ones. Only one fell apart at the end.”

Marissa Morgan came clean about what happened during the construction of her structure’s infrastructure.

“I don’t know what happened. We were trying to put windows on it and it, like, tipped,” she said.

“I was doing the windows so I guess you can say it was my fault.”

D’Amato admitted he made the activity challenging.

“I did not participate because I was judging. We did have two of our coaches also try to build one. They would say that theirs was the best but it was so boring,” he said.

“It did stand, which is difficult when you give them an hour because it’s supposed to set for three hours before you start decorating. We don’t ever give them that time. You do have to work against physics to make that thing stick together.”

Sticking together is why D’Amato does activities like this.

“We’re all really close. We’ve all known each other for really long so it’s fun to do. It just gets us closer,” Marissa Morgan said.

“Especially with my grade, there’s a lot of us. And we’ve been playing since third grade, so it’s really fun to keep playing with them and do things like the gingerbread house thing outside of practice,” Melanie Morgan said.

The fate of the holiday icon’s living quarters usually falls into two categories.

“Some of them take them home as trophies,” D’Amato said. “Some of them pitch them right away.”

Marissa Morgan and Schaetz’s dwelling chose the latter option.

There is a third alternative.

“We had one girl who ate most of hers,” D’Amato said. “We’re like, ‘OK, that’s a life choice. We don’t advise that.’”