The Abington Girls Varsity Basketball Team played their last game of the season on March 5. For senior small forward Kristyanna Remillard, it was her last game playing for Abington High School. She donned her number 35 jersey and played her hardest in the tough 41-33 loss against Apponequet Regional High School.

Remillard began playing basketball when she was a fourth grader, and she credits her dad with getting her involved. She joined the AHS girls team in 2015 as a freshman, and has been a member ever since. This year, she was nominated as a South Shore League All Star, along with teammates Maureen Stanton (’19) and Lauren Keleher (’20). As captain, she led the team to an incredible record of 17-8.

She also played soccer all four years of high school, is a member of the Unified Sports program, is secretary of Student Council, and President of the Student Athlete Advisory Council (SAAC).

Playing for Abington has left Remillard with many memories that can only be made in a team sport. When asked about her favorite memory, she actually listed multiple.

“I’ll miss making new friends and getting hyped up with the girls before games. I’ll also miss surprising the whole league with how good of a team we were this year and that we shouldn’t be stepped on. When we won big games, Lauren Keleher and I would run into the locker room with our cameras and everyone would go crazy jumping up and down and yelling. Another memory was when Corin [Mahan] fell for like a minute straight in the game against Middleborough.”

The girls team came off of a promising 2017-18 season, with a record of 13-9. Remillard believed she and her team could do even better than that in the upcoming season. She stated that she wanted to “rebound more and play better defense. I worked on those two things all season instead of just focusing on offense.” The team as a whole wanted to “make tournament, win the league, and beat our record from last year. Thankfully, we accomplished all of those goals.

Even though she wasn’t a state champion, Remillard took away very valuable advice and life skills from the game she knows so well. She specified a playoff situation where she was told, “Offense wins games and defense wins championships. Although this year we didn’t make it to the championship, our defense won us the East Bridgewater game and got us to the semi-finals.”

Her teammates and coaches also taught her a thing or two that she could use on and off the court. “They have taught me how to be a better person in and out of school. They have taught me how to be hardworking and dedicated. They taught me how to not be selfish and work together with people, which will be helpful later on in my life.”

Now, someone as successful as Remillard may try to exemplify qualities of another player, a coach, or someone famous. That isn’t the case here. “The person I look up to most is not a famous athlete, but my dad,” she said. “He knew everything about basketball, he taught me the love of the game and taught me everything I know about basketball.”

Remillard is uncertain about playing basketball in college, but if she does, she hopes to play for Curry College in Milton, MA.

As she looked back on her final season with the Green Wave, it was clear she had no regrets.

“This season was better than I could ever have expected. We accomplished so much with such a small team, but we had a lot of heart. I wouldn’t have wanted to end my final season with any other team.”