TOWAMENCIN – Being the 6’0” girl on the Knights’ girls basketball team, Mia Melchior has big expectations as one of the starting forwards. Melchior plays in her position typically against girls bigger and stronger than her, but with the help of the crowd and support from her family, she can hold her own even if she is physically challenged by her opponents.

Basketball heavily runs in Melchior’s family having three older brothers who played basketball.

As J.J Melchior, a key player on the boys a basketball team last year, had a strong season in his senior year, she has great expectations to live up to.

“It is good pressure living up to my brother’s expectations. I feed off of it and it pushes me to play well, but sometimes I feel pressured to play well,” said Melchior.

Besides her brothers, she has two great parents who have had a great impact toward her passion for basketball. Since she was 5 years old her dad has been her coach and she considers her mom to be her biggest fan.

“I love my parents and they love me. They have definitely helped me get to where I am,” said Melchior.

With all the love and support from her friends and family, Melchior is gunning for another successful season just as last year’s was. She is still getting over the loss in the state playoffs last year, and is excited to get back to that point. Overall, Melchior feels she did a pretty good job last year, and that the Knights had a great season as a team. She is proud of herself for being able to contribute to such a good season.

For Melchior, preparing for this season from last season meant taking a step back from basketball. Living the basketball life all year around became mentally straining. Over the summer she decided to take a break from it.

“I needed a mental break from basketball. I think coming into this season as a fresh start, having a nice long break over the summer, has really helped me be able to just tackle this season better,” said Melchior.

As of the first game last Friday, Melchior feels her squad played a good game and it was a lot of fun. The atmosphere of the crowd and fans coming out for support is what she feels the team fed off of. To Melchior, there are obvious things the team needs to improve on especially for harder games, but overall she believes the team played a good game. Week by week Melchior feels as a whole they just needs to play good, smart basketball.

“We have to play good basketball from start to finish. We have to rebound, take care of the basketball, keep our turnovers down, and play a solid basketball game,” said Melchior.

Playing an important position, especially for rebounds, Melchior is more excited than nervous for games. The nerves only really kick in when a lot of people are ar the game. She found Friday’s game was a little nerve racking with the crowd, but she eventually embraced it. This season nervousness won’t be Melchior’s problem, but her confidence is something she is working on.

“Confidence is definitely my biggest thing. I need to be more confident in my ability to play, and be as big as I possibly can against these girls that are bigger in this league,” said Melchior.

As Melchior works through this season to be even more successful than last year, she has her family by her side. She finds her family to be a huge reason why she plays. To Melchior, this idea of family that she has as support is not just her immediate family, but also her teammates.