The boys basketball team has recently had their senior night on Thursday Jan 29. All the practice and dedication has been paid off throughout this season and their senior night showcased it all. While all of this is exciting there is also some emotional feelings behind it being their second to last game and leaving their teammates behind.
The boys went up against Benjamin. Their basketball team is fairly good and was going to challenge them so they had to be prepared for a challenge. While the boys started practicing for their game right after school with their coach Dean Alexander Groothuis who has prepared them this whole season, they did unfortunately lose. The final score was 44-66.
Even though a win on their senior night would have been good they bonded as a team and had amazing spirit the whole game which is what really counts. Gavin Slade number one, team captain was excited for senior night because of the walk out. The way the walk out works is the senior players come out and take pictures with their family, team and coach, as well as receiving a basketball in a case with friends and teachers signatures.
Gavin's family came out to support him and he was extremely thankful for this support since he has dedicated so much time throughout the season to show out one last time. Gavin said "I feel sad but excited for my future and I am going to miss team bonding, but hopefully I will continue basketball in college.” The only thing he feels he could have improved on was to hit more shots at the start of the game, but besides that everything was perfect.
Jake Peysakhovic is a point guard number 24. Jake has been playing basketball for a long time and has been waiting for this moment his whole life. While this is a bittersweet moment he really enjoyed it. He was mostly looking forward to having fun because it was his last game. “ I can handle lots of pressure so seeing the big crowd didn't affect me, especially since my family and friends were there supporting me every step of the way.” Said Jake. He thinks he could have improved on better defense but at the end he had so much fun playing with his team one last time that all his problems went away for that one game.
Rudolph Brown plays center and is number 32. Senior night was amazing for him because this was his last game with his teammates and it was a good experience because the crowd was very supportive. “ Even though I went into the game thinking we were going to win, in the end even though we didn't win what really mattered to me was all the coaches, friends and family that came to support me”, said Rudolph. He is going to miss the atmosphere of being on the court with his teammates after school messing around and not worrying about the real world. Basketball means a lot to him so he hopes he can continue this after high school.
Senior Night is a bittersweet tradition, marking the end of their senior basketball season and the beginning of the new chapter. For these four players, the basketball senior night was a celebration of every early morning practice and every hard fought game.
