Can’t win them all

A highlight of the Boys Varsity Basketball Season

BY MARKUS

Staff Reporter

The Sequoia High School Varsity Boys team’s season started in the Winter, with their record being 1-11 in the normal season so far, and their total record including preseason being 1-23.

The mindset going into the preseason was the same for both the coach and the players.

“We knew well, I knew it was gonna be a little tough. Usually our preseason schedule is always tough, and it’s always been that way, but I knew we were going to struggle. I just didn’t know we would struggle this much,” said Coach Fine Lauese.

Many teams want hard preseason games in order to prepare the team for the normal season, but for some teams this can be discouraging if the competition is too difficult.

“Going into the season, I think we had some confidence, but after losing the first few, we started losing that sense of confidence,” said Varsity Shooting Guard Victor Gonzalez.

Losing the first few games can be difficult for teamsbecause it takes away your confidence and doesn’t set them up for success. Teams usually starting losing even more games which is happening this season with the team not having won a game so far.

Inexperienced players contribute greatly to the struggles of the varsity basketball team. Many sophomores are playing up for Varisty which is hard to adjust to given that they played in lower age league in the past.

“Just an experience playing a lot of kids playing a lot of minutes that are young.You know, most of them are from the freshman team. And then all of a sudden, bam, here you go. You get varsity guys that are much bigger, faster, stronger,” said Lauese.

It is impressive for so many sophomores on a varsity team, also showing the talent that the Sequoia Basketball program has and the talent they can produce.

Basketball is a game of size so it can be difficult for young players to transition to varsity. It can also be difficult mentally because in Varsity the play moves a lot quicker and you need to make faster decisions than other levels like freshman. However, since the team is made up of young players, they are developing chemistry from this season and will be able to play with each other for a while.

With all the losses, the team gets closer together and they learn each others strengths and weaknesses which will increase the potential of the future Sequoia Basketball teams. But there are other factors playing into the potential of the team.

The teams record might not be great, but the team is doing everything they can to turn this season around as much as they can. The team also has a lot of dedication and commitment to improve. They go to practice everyday, put in more work than required and are working extremely hard to turn this season around and improve for the seasons to come.

“The best thing I have going for us, for at least for me, I feel like it’s a group of kids. We have super kids. I mean, they’re great. They show up every day. They don’t complain. We work after it every day. So as long as they’re willing to come in and put the time in,” said Lauese.

This shows how powerful this teams mentality is and how bright their future is. Players are not only trying to strengthen their weaknesses but, are also trying to perfect their strengths. With the team being such a young and hardworking it shows the potential that this team has and how successful they will be in the next couple seasons.

“I’m getting extra shots up every opportunity I can putting in extreme time in the gym trying to get better,” said Gonzalez.