By Halil Vaughn
Photo courtesy of Ahmad Vappie
The Willow varsity boys’ basketball team has high hopes for the upcoming basketball season with their new lineups, even though they lost more than half of their starters, who were seniors.
The players on the basketball team say that they will be coming into the season better than last year and that they’ll finish the year better than last year as well. “The season is going to be good this year,” said sophomore Ahmad Vappie. “We have a way more talented and skilled team than last year. We will be dawgs this year.”
Last year, with starting seniors always on the court, we couldn’t see as many of our current players’ full potential.
“Our record this season is probably going to be 20-12,” stated junior Stephen Bryan, which would beat last year’s season record, which was 12-13.
“I think the biggest challenge in the season is staying focused on basketball while being a student as well as an athlete,” said junior Ellis Collier. “It will be a challenge to manage everything with the practices we have and the games we will have,” Ellis continued.
“Yeah, I think we improved a lot from last season,” agreed senior Jacobi Wilford.
The team has been working all summer and seems to be playing with better chemistry as a team, as well as more independently, than last year.
“Yeah, I think the team has good chemistry because we all hangout together outside of practice, and we treat each other like brothers,” said junior Santi Tillero. This Willow team builds chemistry on and off the court by always being around each other.
