Shooting for the win in the 2023-24 winter season, OA boys basketball is ushering in high expectations for their upcoming games. Led by team captains juniors Gabe Chaparro and Elijah Spessert as well as senior Andres Badillo, boys basketball hopes to come back stronger than ever despite a rocky preseason record.
Boys basketball played a multitude of preseason games which included both losses and wins. Though the preseason record wasn’t as clean as they had hoped, varsity was still able to grow their plays and team chemistry during these games.
“We learned a lot of new concepts on offense and since it’s a relatively new team, it was great build[ing] more chemistry with all the other teammates.” Matthew Shen, a freshman on varsity, said.
After placing fourth in the 405 league during last year’s season, the team is more ambitious than ever to place high this year. Besides reaching CIF playoffs and placing second in league, boys basketball holds numerous goals for their season. They plan to achieve these by strengthening their mentality during games as well as boosting confidence in their athletic abilities.
“…don’t worry about the mistakes and just move on.” head coach Paul Thavornach said. “The self-confidence piece and winning for the team is going to solve a lot of the issues that we have.”
The team also hopes to build their team chemistry so that it would transfer to their games to come. Bonding events such as the team trip to Catalina Islands in December helps the team get closer and work better as an athletic team.
“Once a year, we try to take the boys out for a team bonding trip. We want the boys to get out of their element and build their team chemistry as well,” said Coach Thavornach.
Team bondings like these are especially important for a new team. The lineup for this year’s season also shows as a new change that the team would have to adapt to. As a result of the majority of the starting lineup graduating last year, the new lineup is to be younger than usual.
“I’m the only senior in the starting five, so it’s a very young team. But I feel confident for what we have built and [continue to build] because these guys are getting the experience they need and they’ll be confident in their upcoming years.” senior captain Badillo said.
With lots of anticipation riding on their performance for certain, special games that would be played during the season, boys basketball continues to practice hard, growing stronger as a team and as athletes.
“Our homecoming games will be important. Whitney is going to be great [to play], especially because we beat them last year. We have to beat them again,” said junior captain Chaparro. “[So} come out to boys basketball and watch and have fun.”
Starting in the summer and continuing through preseason, boys basketball has been putting in their time and effort to make this winter season a great one. With lots of hype for the games as well as the excitement of the sport, boys basketball is sure to rise to the expectations.
