Ana Santana Gonzalez: Hard-working Sheffield Hatters thriving as women's BBL goes from strength to strength

This year’s league is the most competitive I have played in as a Hatter. If you do not work hard each game you can lose against any team.

One of the main things I have learned from being a Hatter is that complacency can kill a team before they even step on the court. You always have to respect your opponent no matter how confident you are.

Northumbria, for example, has a lot of injured players at the moment, yet they still fight, compete and hustle against big teams.

We don’t just train hard before we play any game, we train smart as well; because we know any game in this league is going to be a tough one.

The key points to practice in recent sessions have been...Hustling on defence. Sometimes nothing beats just simple hard work.

But that hard work has to be channelled in the right way. This is why we have been training on denying the opposition driving through the middle of us to the basket as well as defending screens.

The real bread and butter of defending.

When people ask me how to become a better player I always say...Persistence is the key. There will always be highs and lows, but no matter what, you have to keep working hard.

Anyone can put the work in when times are good, it’s when you work hard during the lows that’s going to make you genuinely better and stronger.

This year’s league is the most competitive I have played in as a Hatter. This season, if you do not work hard each game you can lose against any team, no matter where they are in the WBBL Championship ladder.

This season there are more talented players in the league than ever before and the games are much more interesting. For example; a short while ago, two trophy games were decided in over-time in one week, which is incredible.

And The WBBL getting more competitive is great for female basketball in Britain, because the WBBL is only in its third season.

In its inception, a few teams tended to dominate the sport. However, the competitiveness of the league has vastly improved and this only brings excitement.

By being a more competitive league, we’re able to introduce a whole new audience to this great sport.

The player in the hottest form right now is...our skipper Steph Gandy.

She is doing an amazing job all-round; on offence as well as on defence. As our captain, she is always pushing us to improve but is always there when the team any one of us needs her.

It also needs mentioning that Brittany Winborne is doing a fantastic job in getting offensive rebounds as well as Ellis Clayton who did a massive job in defence against the Manchester Mystics a few weeks ago in our WBBL trophy game.

The mantra we need to carry forward into the rest of the season is that regardless of who the players in the hottest form are right now, the important thing is that at training we all work hard; not just to get better ourselves, but to make our teammates better.

We play for each other and my team-mates play for me, and that’s the best way to be in a team sport such as basketball.

Sheffield Hatters are next in action against Sevenoaks Suns at All Saints sports centre in Sheffield on Saturday March 4 (tip-off 3pm).