“When I first started playing travel basketball when I was young, probably around 6 years old is when I really found my love for basketball. If I’m being completely honest, I was more of a baseball guy up until 7th grade. I still loved basketball, but everyone has preferences, and mine was baseball up until then. After 7th grade, I had a little bit of a growth spurt, got a lot better of the summer, and then just decided I wanted to focus on basketball. I started to do a lot better in games and really just put work in to get better. I would just shoot outside by myself, replicating what I would do in games, and basically would just get as many reps as possible every time. I would also play with my dad, and he would help me work on other parts of my game as well.
“Last year as a freshman, I had many challenges at first because it felt like I couldn’t say anything. It’s better now though during my sophomore year, just because I’ve grown so much more comfortable and gotten more familiar with them. A big difference is that last year we sucked, so it was annoying to be young and on a bad team where I felt like I didn’t have a voice, but this year we are getting better and it’s easier to be friends with your teammates when you’re winning. I feel like you can get along better with each other, and feel more comfortable, more like a team.
“I think there are a lot of factors that led to our success this year compared to last year. Being 5-15 and being one of the worst teams in the league really put a fire in us that you can see when we play this year. Also a lot of credit goes to the guys and the effort they put in. Everyone worked on their game over the summer. Almost all the varsity guys went to the summer and fall league games so that definitely formed better chemistry. We also got a new coach this season that has helped us. We have practice plans that help us work on what we need to get better at. We aren’t stagnant which it felt like we were last year, and we are actually trying to get better and not just go through the motions. Also the style of offense, we don’t have set plays so it gives us freedom to use all of our skills, as I believe we are the most skilled team in the conference, so having this new coach is definitely helping, and is a reason for our improvement. There is still a lot more of the season to go though. We still are hungry and aren’t satisfied with where we are at. We have dropped some games we should’ve won, and even though it seems like we should be happy with where we are, we still know we are capable of more. I’m just excited to keep playing with the guys and keep winning.”
