by Valendy Pierre
It’s November, and you know what that means… it’s basketball season! Coach Williams and his boys have been training hard the past couple of weeks, getting ready for a great season. Having the advantage of four starters and nine returning lettermen, coach plans to continue to build the family. According to coach, the boys have a strong bond– stronger than most– a great asset for the winning team. “This is my 25th year as a head varsity basketball coach and I’ve never had a team that has had better chemistry…these young men care deeply about their teammates, the success of the team and love each other tremendously…” Jai Clark and Rodney Lubin, a pair of starting seniors confirmed this saying that the culture built and the brotherly love is why they play. “I love the program and playing with my brothers,” Jai stated, proving this point. They have been working really hard, on and off the court, and hope to have an amazing season.
A year ago, the team lost a few valuable players, but that didn’t stop them from dominating on the court. “I would say it was a grind every day we just grind.” Exclaimed Rodney when asked to describe last year’s season. According to Jai, the team saw last year’s season as a stepping stone, motivating them to work even harder this season. The players did have their weak and strong traits. “Lack of defensive toughness, lack of consistent shooting,” Coach Williams explained as their weakest traits. “Their strongest traits were the tremendous attitude and effort, great offensive rebounding”
Winning is one goal for this year, but it’s not just about winning to these boys. It’s also about whether you are putting in effort and giving your all on the court. “It’s learning and progression, always gaining knowledge and moving in a positive direction,” said Jai, explaining what winning is to him. The boys’ basketball team did come up short last year, but they plan to set higher expectations in order to have a better year. “Be better 1% each day as a teammate, as a player, and as a person,” stated Jai. Rodney hopes to become a great leader and enjoy the process, wanting to finish his last year playing here with a “bang”. Coach states specifics in order for them to be more successful on the court. “For us to be successful on the floor we believe in playing great man-to-man defense, be very unselfish offensively sharing the ball and play incredibly hard every night for 32 minutes. We also think that our advantage will be having 11 players all talented enough to play and contribute on a given night which is a great advantage,” he said.
There are schools in this district who happen to have more experienced players. Wekiva, West Orange, and Evans were challenging schools to defeat in the past, meaning our team will have to put double the effort in order to win. Though those schools have excellent teams, this group of boys has what it takes to defeat them. “Wekiva, Evans and West Orange are all great teams that we have to be our best in order to defeat,” explained Coach. “However, we believe that we are the team to beat and our job is to live up to our own high standards during the season.” Pushing themselves and putting in 110% on the court, no school will defeat our team…
The Apopka High School Basketball team has started off strong, dominating Rockledge HS 68-59 in their preseason classic Monday. They are expected and will make it far during the season. “I believe we have a great chance to win our district championship and possibly make the Final Four in Lakeland.”