A brand new year has begun for Warren Central’s basketball team. With the season officially starting at home on Nov. 27 against Cathedral, the Warriors look ahead toward their goal for the season.
Last season the team finished with 14 wins and 11 losses. They lost in sectionals to the Cathedral Irish 48-43.
The majority of the team’s varsity roster last year were seniors. This year the team will look to overcome possible inexperience on the varsity level and find wins where last year the team would have struggled.
“Last year I was an underclassman starting on varsity, but this year I feel like some of the guys will have to step into the role,” sophomore JJ Craig said. “The seniors we do have this year will have to be leaders.”
Recognizing that the underclassman will be helping the team is also important. The team has more depth than previous years. This can help the team when facing injuries and overall building a better team for not only this season but future years. This is key to advancing further than sectionals year after year.
“I feel like our underclassman will help us out a lot this year,” senior Ezekiel Kirby said. “The ones we have coming up this year will be able to help us build on our team. But I also feel they will help us build our defense this year.”
Coaching this year will play just as big of a role in the team's success, if not more, because of the lack of varsity experience. Players do recognize that coaching will be of great importance in how the team can perform game to game.
“[We need] coaches there when we mess up,” senior Jevon Guess said. “Coaches did a really good job of this last year, so this year I don't really see any flaws in coaching.”
Support from coaches comes in all forms, not just advice and finding a strategy to beat an opponent. Coaching can also come in the form of finding confidence throughout the season, building a more confident team.
“Coaches just will need to help keep us from making mistakes and being more confident and supporting us,” Craig said.
Moving forward into the season, the Warriors look to be more organized and win games that were close in previous years. Like every team, the Warriors want to advance further than before. That can happen when the team prepares and raises their expectations of what can be accomplished.
“We plan to improve on offense,” Kirby said. “We need to improve the efficiency and how we run it. We didn't run it very well last year. We hope to get our offense to a plus this year.”