With the several lineup changes and other adjustments made throughout the season, the SHS boys basketball team is working on rebuilding the future of the program.
Having a winning record of 22-7 and making it to semi-state in the 2015-2016 season could have put some pressure on the new varsity team this 2016-2017 season. The Card’s ended the season with a record of 6-15, but according to Coach Kyle Simpson, rebuilding the program doesn’t happen overnight.
“Our guys are believing in each other and learning the process of what it takes to compete at a high level,” Simpson said. “It’s all a process, (and) it just happens at different rates.”
According to Simpson, the underclassman (freshman and sophomores) have really stood out and stepped up, and there is a different player that does something great every game.
“I would say the freshman and sophomores have grown up a lot,” Simpson said. “They are definitely the most improved, and obviously they are our future.”
Sophomore Chaz Hinds also thinks that the young players on the team make a difference. They have faced tough competition, due to the hard schedule, especially towards the beginning of the season. So, although they have played against challenging schools, the underclassmen stepping up have helped the team, according to Hinds.
“I think there were a lot of good changes,” Hinds said. “A lot of things happened, but it turned out for the best, and we are looking good. Most of us are young, so hopefully we can carry this on for a couple more years.”
According to Hinds, when it comes to the background of the players on the team, most of them haven’t played together at a varsity level before this year, which could have caused some roadblocks throughout the season when it came to chemistry on and off the court.
“I think we improved by just playing together, because none of us had played together at all,” Hinds said. “It took a while to gel, but once we gelled, as you can tell from our recent results, it’s kind of worked out the way we thought it would.”
Simpson says the SHS boys basketball team has been working hard all season, but they are really coming together now, and continuing to focus on giving their all while preparing to play in sectionals.
Due to the first round bye, the boy’s first sectional game will be on March 3. Both Simpson and Hinds believe that the team is ready, and that they received a good draw for sectionals. The bye causes SHS to play either Perry or Roncalli first. Out of all the schools in our sectional, these are two of the teams that SHS have competed the best against and had close games with this season.