Staff photo/ Brian Yauger Bloomfield senior Holden Gwinn (21) drives to the basket during the team’s game against Chalker on Friday at Chalker High School. Gwinn scored a game-high 12 points along with Colton Merlino.

NORTH BLOOMFIELD — If you’re driving north on Rt. 45 and you blink, there’s a solid chance you miss it.

With roughly 100 kids in the school between grades 6-12, Bloomfield is already behind the eight-ball in fielding a number of sports.

Football is obviously out of the question, and other staples of area schools like baseball and soccer aren’t offered either.

Basketball is one of the few sports Bloomfield can still field a team.

They play a split varsity/junior varsity schedule, with goals of returning to full varsity down the road, but the main goal above all as participation numbers drop across the Mahoning Valley, is to continue fielding a team.

It’s not an easy task, but it’s second-year coach Joe Abramovich’s situation. In any community, but especially small communities like Bloomfield, a high school basketball program serves as a place to gather and connect.

Keeping that alive is an important responsibility to Abramovich.

“I think just basketball and this program, to this community, it gives them something to do in the winter, it brings them out just about every night,” Abramovich said. “On Wednesday night, we have a hot dog fundraiser and it’ll bring the community, they love that kind of stuff. The best thing, and I’ll give a shoutout to (the community), is that we could be losing by 20 or 40 points, or we could be winning by 20 or 40 points and they’re still going to show up. Basketball here brings the community together, especially in these winter months.”

On the court, things haven’t been easy for the Cardinals. The team is still searching for its first win, but that hasn’t dampened community support.

The group of Nate Haught, Nevaeh Doll, Colton Merlino, Jackson Foster, Holden Gwinn and Mason Pequignot isn’t just the team’s on-court rotation on game nights. It’s the entire roster.

And against Chalker on Friday, the team’s last varsity effort, they were without Foster, leaving them with just five players who played the full 32 minutes.

The Cardinals lost 44-29.

While keeping the program afloat is obviously a big part, don’t think that survival is the only goal. They want to thrive through tough circumstances.

“What I came to find out is a lot of these kids have grit and hard work just comes natural to them. Then it becomes my job to make them basketball players and use that hard work while we’re on the floor,” Abramovich said. “The idea is just to keep them engaged, keep them having fun, give them something to do in the winter, but also find ways to compete and maybe win games that they’re not used to winning and helping prove to themselves that they can do that.”

It can be disheartening to look across the benches and see a team double your roster size. For Bloomfield, that’s a regular occurrence. It’d be easy to get discouraged and not want to continue playing, but it doesn’t stop them.

“(What keeps me going is) seeing them show up. I mean, if they can do it, I can do it,” said Gwinn, one of the team’s two seniors. “I have a lot of respect for anyone that joins a team and is willing to come here every day and keep showing up — sick or whatever they have — to play, and they do it. They know what they’re getting into signing up here, so I respect that a lot. I give it my best, they give their best.”

Doll is in an even more unique situation. There is no girls program at Bloomfield, so if she wants to play basketball, the boys’ team is the only option.

“They’re way more aggressive and it can be very challenging,” she said. “I feel like it’s a faster pace and you get shoved. It’s hard, but it’s fun to be competitive like that.”

Despite the odds against them, Bloomfield’s squad of six are grateful for the support they see every game, and try to leave it all out there for those who support them.

“It’s nice to see people come out. They at least know that we’re gonna try every single game,” Foster said. “It’s not gonna be like, ‘Oh, we’re just tossing the ball around to lose,’ but like they know at least they’re going to see us trying every single time.”

Supporting the team is a community effort, and the program’s fundraisers extend past just helping the basketball team. The fundraising efforts extend to the school’s other programs including track and field, volleyball and softball.

“I can’t take all the credit for it,” Abramovich said. “Our administration does most of it, and the nice thing is that it covers all sports, so it’s not just basketball that’s getting all the fundraising. Volleyball is getting it, softball is getting it and track and field is getting it, so it really is a team effort outside of each team. Just being able to bring the community out and make it fun (is important). We do fun stuff like hot dogs and then we do a raffle and spaghetti dinners. Easy stuff that gets people excited.”

The Cardinals will host a hot dog dinner before their final game of the season against Agape Christian Academy.