Thunder 9 had a remarkable inaugural season in the Hoop Heaven basketball league. Thunder 9 is a collection of ninth graders from the local Jewish high schools including SAR, Frisch and The Idea School. Despite playing together for the first time, they won the Hoop Heaven High School JV division championship. After a 6-1 regular season and a #1 seed going into the playoffs, the Thunder beat a talented CMEK team 58-56 in the semifinals then beat an 11th grade team from Oakland, 52-44 in the finals. The championship game was much closer than the score indicated and was against a team that included three players from the varsity football squad. It took a full team effort to beat a talented and athletic squad. The Thunder looks forward to many more successful seasons.