Despite a coaching change shaking up the team in the middle of the season, the boys varsity basketball team has persevered through the transition to obtain results.
In Dec., Coach Mike stepped away from the team and was replaced by Coach Marcus and Dani, marking a key transition in team leadership. Initially, the season expectations were high, but losses in very tight games by two or three points dampened the team’s spirit. By late Dec., the team was not optimistic about the rest of the season. However, team manager Veer B. ’28, who helps optimize the team’s performance through analyzing game statistics, categorized this year as a “step forward in the right direction” and was insistent that a full season with coach Marcus and Dani would set the team on a positive trajectory.
“The new coaching staff and style of play, on offense and defense, feels revolutionary,” Veer said.
Nigel L. ’28 agreed with Veer’s positive outlook, commenting on the new coaches’ effective shift in intensity during practice. “Practice is harder and more exhausting, but I feel that it gets us more prepared for games,” Nigel said.
Despite the season having fallen short of players’ expectations, Nigel believes the alteration of mentality and training will lead to strides in improvement next season. This positive sentiment was echoed by Aidin and Shayan S. ’27.
Aidin reflected, as the team’s only junior captain, on the structural advantages his position had regarding rebuilding next season.
“I think, in some ways, it’s actually better to have a junior captain in the sense that you get to grow into the leadership role,” he said. “[Next season] I’ll hopefully be a better leader, and people will be more comfortable with me being a captain for the team.”
For Shayan, team chemistry has been the primary highlight of the season.
“We have good team chemistry, and we like playing together,” Shayan said. “We have a lot of fun. Even though we haven’t been able to stack up as many wins as we would have hoped, we’ve still been really engaged and close in these games.”
