Amelia Brangle and Ryan Demargel
Contributing Writers
Men’s basketball team is looking to claim its sixth State title this year.
Going into this year’s season, the Statesmen are taking it “one day at a time” to prepare for a good season with the common goal in mind of winning State.
Besides this ultimate goal of winning State, the team has many smaller goals it hopes to achieve along the way.
“The first goal always starts with the State championship, but there’s a lot of stepping stones along the way like a 20-win season, a Conference championship, winning your own tournament at the Webster Classic and the Coaches vs Cancer tournament,” Coach Justin Mathes said.
When asked, other athletes agree with Mathes. “Win state, win conference,” senior Holmes Hansen said.
The players began putting in work even before the season started, showing their drive and desire to reclaim the state title.
“The guys have had a really good season, a good set of 30 practices leading up to our first game. We played well in June, and they worked hard in the fall when we get three hours a week, so taking advantage of those opportunities and focusing on getting a little bit better everyday, hopefully has us ready to go to battle this year,” Mathes said.
To prepare for the year, the team has worked not only during practice but also outside of practice.
“Outside of all the on court practice we do a lot of weight room lifting and then to follow that up a lot of stretching and recovery,” sophomore Quincy Williams said.
The Statesmen believe this year will be different from last year. Coming from a “mediocre” year last year, Mathes believes that with the new group of seniors and the drive of the team for their goals, they will have a successful year.
“To me, for the players, I feel like we are more locked in and focused on the ultimate goal,” Williams said.
“We have way more leadership, and the team wants to win together. As captain I can set an example for everyone else on the team,” Hansen said.
The players talked about the importance of their teammates and what they enjoy about this team in particular. The team this year has a particularly good bond, partaking in activities and team bonding events both during practice and in their free time.
“We spend a ton of time with each on and off the court, and we all hold each other to a high standard,” Hansen said.
Both Willaims and Mathes agree with the importance of team bonding, and how this year the team has been getting along great.
“Our bonding is great, we are all a family and we are like brothers. We always go out to eat and go to each other’s houses,” Williams said.
The players all talked about how they can push each other to the best of their abilities and keep each other on their toes.
“The seniors get along well, and they are doing a good job of embracing the younger guys. I think team chemistry is going to be a strength for us,” Mathes said.
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