As the winter season approaches, Basketball is on the rise. As the team prepares for the 2024-2025 season, the players give us some insight into their preparations and how their preseason matches have been going.
Starting with a new edition to the team, frosh player Zoé Samanó (#2) has been bringing new energy to the court with his promising potential shown in practice, which was displayed during Nov. 11th’s game against Glendale High School. This game was the home opener, but it was an unfortunate turnout. Samanó reflects, “That game went really awful, but I think we could have easily won if we didn’t lose motivation halfway through the game.” Samanó hopes “my teammates and I can start to motivate each other and help each other be better.” As the frosh team is still getting used to each other, they are working together to be the best they can be. With the season starting in December, Samanó has keeps his head up and practices hard for the next game.
With players moving up from frosh to junior varsity, they are already familiar with the team. JV player James Janas (#2) shares, “I’m excited for the season, and I like when we play good teams because it’s a good experience…When I step on the court, I try to stay calm and not overthink anything”. During the home opener, JV also had an unfortunate turnout. Janas explains, “We lost both games because of how we closed games but we showed persistence.” As he believes JV has extremely strong chemistry, they just continue to build off of each other. With this great team advantage, they will continue to fight together on the court.
The star players, our varsity team, shares their thoughts on the game. Unfortunately they also had an upsetting turnout. Varsity player Declan Hirota (#10) reflects,”Last two games may not have had the result we wanted, we hit a bog hill starting the season but mistakes are made to be fixed so we won’t be stuck on past games, we are fixed on upcoming games”.
Still following through their preparations for the season, Captain Chase Guillory (#2) expresses, “I feel that this year we have apretty strong team especially since so many of us can play the same positions. This way we are able to play with more flexibility and don’t have to depend on one person for a designated role”. Guillory continues, with anticipation, “I’m looking forward to playing in these upcoming games because it is my senior year and I can translate what I have been practicing, on the court”. With their long and hard practices, being led by good leaders, and having come a long way with their chemistry, he believes they will come back stronger than ever.
Lastly, Head Coach Womack got an amazing opportunity for his varsity players. Womack explains, “Through some of my connections in the basketball space. I have a contact who is the director for a very prominent nationally competitive AAU team. Nike sponsors them and Womack understands the importance of public high school teams having resources. He did us a huge favor vouching for our program to receive the generous donation from Nike. Normally only sponsored programs receive these types of packages”. The varsity team stepped on the court with pairs of the DBook Chapter 1s.
With the unfortunate turn outs of the teams, Womack reflects, “I am not surprised by having two losses to some well coached programs. I know what our team is up against being new to this level and rebuilding a culture of winning…In game two I believe we woke up and defended our home court fairly well”. Coach Womack feels good about this upcoming season, he explains; “This year will be a year of growth with the goal to become 1% better everyday. It is a process to build a successful high school basketball program”. With Coach Womack’s encouragement and great coaching, the team has a recipe for success.
With all this positive energy and great mindsets on the team with Coach Womacks support, The boys basketball team’s upcoming season is looking bright. With the new editions and harder practices, the team is heading the right direction.
