It’s that time of year again.  The sound of the crowds at Mackey on Friday and Saturday nights echo all the way up to the West Side gym, where the basketball teams are warming up for the start of the season. Both the boys and girls basketball teams have to deal with the changes that every new year brings, as underclassmen must fill the shoes of the recently graduated class.

With the loss of some starting seniors like William Mbongo and Caleb Smith, the boys team has to change their usual way of play.

“We have a chance to be an offensive team, because we can shoot.” said Coach Wood.

The only foreseeable problem with this season is that it will be the first time in several years that they will be pressed for height.  They have had many vertically gifted players in the past like Justus Stanback, standing at a solid six feet eight inches.  However, the lack of height on the team can be made up for with more important aspects of the game such as driving to the rim and taking more shots. “We are all going to pitch in for the rebounding,” said Jared Snoble ’15.

“We have a lot of guys who are veterans,” said Wood. “The five guys starting have played significant minutes on varsity.”

The girls basketball team has gone through some little changes as well.  With the Martin twins and Shelby Mann graduated they’ll have to have people step-up and replace them.  “They were a good portion of our offense,” said Coach Schott, “We have people ready to fill their roles. Lorelei Turner is going to have an expanded role.”

In spite the loss of three starters, the girls will still have the same style of team.  “Our style is going to be similar, we are an up-tempo style, defensive team and we’ll be deeper so that won’t change,” said Schott.