Dartmouth High basketball star Kat Cheesebro puts in long hours of practice to keep her team undefeated
DARTMOUTH - It's no wonder junior basketball captain Kat Cheesebro is a rising star at Dartmouth High School.
"She's amazing. I mean we all know it. Kat is our superstar," teammate Hailey Martins said.
Kat works hard to shoot the lights out on the court. She begins her day practicing at the gym before school starts.
"I stay after practice to get extra shots up or even early in the morning to come in and shoot," Kat said.
"Her freshman year she came in and asked if we could get some sort of coverage or somebody here in the morning so she could show up at 6:30 to shootaround," Dartmouth High School Coach Brian Jalbert said.
She has started each school day the same way for the last three years, at the school gym.
Kat has taken the pursuit for a perfect shot upon herself, and she's hoping to emulate her game after her favorite players.
"I really like Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers," Kat said.
"She's very passionate about what she does and we're all grateful for it," Hailey said.
Kat is now into her junior season, and the self-imposed practice has paid off. She averages around 29 points and 9 rebounds per game, and is nearing a double-double.
But Kat tries to not focus on her stats.
"I wasn't really focusing on that. I was focusing more on the team aspect making sure we could win because I'd rather us win games than me drop career highs all the time then lose," Kat told WBZ.
So far this season all Dartmouth has done is win. They are currently undefeated with a 12-0 start.
"We haven't gone 12-0 at this school in my 16 years, so we're enjoying this moment while we can," Coach Jalbert said.
"A lot of teams try to shut her down. They can't do it," Hailey smiled.
Kat has been leading the way, not just on game day, but off the court as well.
"She's also very coachable. If there's something I think she needs to work on we sit down and talk about it. She says 'ok coach.' Then I see her working on it. That helps a lot with the rest of the team," Coach Jalbert said.
"She brings us all together. I think that's what you need as a leader, someone who can come out on the court, bring her a-game, and pull everyone else together not only on the court but off the court as well," Hailey said.
She has not only brought her teammates together, but she has helped other classmates get involved in sports.
"It's just a nice way to take it back from the competitive side and then just see the big picture in sports and stuff. It's really nice to see all those kids having such a great time and it's so fun to do it with them," Kat said.
When she is not playing basketball she is a captain on the soccer team, and participates in unified track.
She intends to pursue a degree in bio medical engineering, in the hopes she can one day work with prosthetics.
But for now she is focused on helping her team stay undefeated and making it to the state championship.
"This wouldn't be possible without the help of my coaches, teammates. really happy and grateful I have them by my side," Kat said.
"It's very rare you get somebody this mature in high school and its even more rare to get someone this mature and this good at basketball as well, so its fun to watch," Coach Jalbert smiled.
