Sneakers squeaking, balls dribbling, fans cheering, and buzzers beating; this cacophony emanating from the gymnasium signifies that basketball season is upon us.
Coaching a high school basketball team is no easy task. Head coach, Lance Creech, makes goals for himself at the end of each season on what the team can improve on to make themselves better next season. This season’s goals are depth and shooting.
“We can play eight, nine, ten guys at a time just in case someone gets injured or if we run into any foul trouble. We have also improved offensively, we have four kids shooting in the upper 30’s to the lower 40’s from the three point line which makes it hard for a team to guard,” Coach said.
These skills are what helped the boys team take down Crete early off in the season.
“We had a really good focus and we rebounded the ball very well. We defended pretty well and we caught Crete off guard by making our perimeter shots,” Creech said.
However, coaching is only half of what makes a team good. The other half comes from the players that focus on improvement, personally and as a team. Seniors Lukaas Simonson and Christian Creech have made a point of emphasis on personal improvement last off-season by putting extra hours in the gym.
“Off-season workouts definitely helped our team tremendously, even those who competed in fall sports came to our off season stuff and that’s when you know they care,” Creech said.
Another thing Simonson thinks off season helps with is team chemistry and bonding. The more chemistry a team has, the better they are.
“Chemistry is very important for a team to have success. Our team has been playing with each other for two-three years now and we all expect a lot from each other,” Simonson said.
These off season workouts and the improvement on team chemistry are what makes it possible for goals to be achieved.
“I would like to get ourselves a district championship and even see ourselves in Lincoln,” said Creech.
Coach Creech has high hopes for his young team to make it to the state competition in Lincoln this year to give Simonson and Creech happy endings to their high school basketball careers.
