Starting the conference season off on January 11th, the boy’s basketball team began the process of working towards winning the championship and making it to the state tournament held at Springdale High School. Number 0, sophomore Mar Lee, outlined their team’s process for each game. Due to the variety of defensive and offensive strategies used by other teams, the boys run through what it will look like in their upcoming match-up.
“We start off by watching films, and then we go through their plays. After that, we guard them for about two days,” Lee said. “Then we go out there and play and execute.”
Junior Jabarih Washington, number 15, is confident going into conference play after executing well against many teams during preseason games. The games helped Washington to feel confident since the teams played in preseason were higher level than most conference teams.
“We had a tough preseason, we played a lot of really good teams, but our conference is a lower level than the teams we’ve been playing in preseason,” Washington said. “So our preseason has really helped us prepare for it, and I feel like we’re going to do good in conference.”
Senior Hayden Wood agrees with his teammates and believes that the basketball team will be able to accomplish a lot with the skills they all have. Although Wood is ready to move on to the college level at Jacksonville where he feels it will elevate his abilities, he is ready to do what he can on the court for his team.
“We have the talent to go all the way,” Wood said. “It’s about if we will buy in as a team.”
While ready for his college career, Wood is continuing to focus on this High School season and competing as hard as he can. Senior Courtland Muldrew is also focused on his current season as opposed to his college career. He believes that they will be able to finish the season well because they are a fierce, competitive team.
“I’m trying to finish High School first and finish with the state championship,” Muldrew said. “We really compete when the odds are against us and battle the hardest.”
Muldrew feels that the biggest challenge is everyone learning about their part on the court but also feels that at the Fayetteville game, it was improved.
“At Fayetteville, everyone knew their role and we got the win,” Muldrew said.
This was a huge sign to him that when the team understands their personal roles, they have a better chance of winning. Washington believes the team’s biggest challenge is the chemistry within the team, and knows that working outside of practice together is important so that the relationships they build will translate onto the court.
“We don’t have the best team chemistry, but we’ve been working on it, and the coach is really pressing us to work together more,” Washington said. “We’ve been team building outside of practice and just cooperating and communicating on the court.”