Could this year’s freshman basketball team be the best ever? They certainly played like it, going 11-5 in the patriot conference. This year was different for the freshman team. A change at head coach along with a totally new team made up this years freshman team.
James Ynson, a physical education teacher, stepped up and took control of the team this year, hoping to provide enthusiasm to the team as well as a winning attitude.
“We conditioned very well throughout the season so we could run longer and faster than other teams. Our conditioning was very hard, but it was for the best,” said freshman Clark Akers.
Conditioning is a huge part of the game and is a key part in a team’s success. If a team isn’t conditioned, the team begins to run out of gas towards the end of the game, which could put their victory in jeopardy.
“Our team was composed of talented players vying for playing time. Therefore, making the practices intense and sometimes much tougher than some of the other schools we actually played against helped us out,” said coach Ynson.
Although they had a few bumps in the road throughout the season, the margin of victory in the games they lost was very low. In their five losses, they lost by a total of 17 points, the most being six at the hands of WT Woodson.
“We contested every game and were never blown out by any team,” said Ynson. “The losses were all soul crushing, but after each defeat we knew that we made crucial errors and we beat ourselves.”
As the season rolled on, the team played better. They won six of their last seven games, improving their record to end the season.
“The sign of a good team is one that learns from its mistakes, at the beginning of the season we made crucial, costly mistakes in the fourth quarter of the games,” said Ynson.
Certainly the team learned from their mistakes and ended the year winning five of their last six by six points or fewer, the opposite of what happened in the beginning of the season.
Much could be said about the fact that this team could have been the best freshman team ever, but there are many years to come of boys basketball, but so far this team has certainly displayed a reason to be called the best.
“Win or lose, this basketball team program should be very excited for the upcoming years,” said Ynson. “WS basketball is back and you should all keep an eye out for this year’s freshman class.