Order on the Court
Photo was taken by Daniel Pownall
As the air becomes colder, the basketball season draws closer. The Rockets are excited to start the new season with lots of energy.
The football team had one of its strongest seasons ever, and this is something that has inspired the basketball team. “I think it has inspired us just because seeing a Catholic High team compete and be as great as they are pushes us to do better,” said senior basketball player CJ Onyekwelu.
Like the football team, the basketball team also dropped one division (From 6A to 5A-Central), and as a result, many of the teams that they will face are new to them. Head basketball coach Mr. Todd Ezzi said, “I don’t think that there’s a lot of difference as far as competition level with the teams that are in our conference compared to what it was before, so I really don’t think there will be a whole lot of an effect.”
One of the effects of the division drop for the football team was an increase in travel times to away games. This is something that won’t have a major effect on the basketball team. “For us, the travel time really didn’t change. I haven’t looked at the exact total, but most of our games are still pretty local,” said Mr. Ezzi. “Our travel times really are not going to be affected much. In fact, some of our games are closer than what we had before. We dropped Conway and added teams like Sylvan Hills and Jacksonville, so not a lot of travel time for us.”
While one of the goals of the team is to win and be successful, they believe that there are more important things than just that. Mr. Ezzi said, “I think early in the year we’re going to be gaining experience, which I think will be really important, but I think as those guys get that experience they’re going to develop quickly.”
One of the reasons why Mr. Ezzi believes that gaining experience is so important for the team is because of how many new players there will be. “We’re definitely going to rely on some juniors and possibly some sophomores, but I think that the seniors that we’ve got coming back are good leaders,” he said.
Since the team is younger, they will be able to grow a lot throughout the season. Onyekwelu said, “I think being younger we’re going to have a lot of mistakes, but that’s just a part of the growing process. The thing about the young guys is that they just want to get better and being younger we can play with more energy.”
While the season ahead has some uncertainties like a new division and a younger team, they still look forward and see big things. “We’re a young team but we’ve got a lot of energy,” said Onyekwelu. “I think we’re coming into the season really optimistic.”
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