Basketball Season Begins: The Path to the Championship
COUGAR BOYS AND GIRLS HOOPSTERS LOOK TO REPEAT LAST YEAR’S SUCCESS
The 2022/2023 boys’ basketball season opens this month. The team has had to rebuild from last year when the squad was 12-2 and won the divisional championship. The deep playoff run was stopped by the Community Health Academy of the Heights.
“If you want to play for me you have to be open-minded, hard-working, dedicated, coachable, and ready to improve rapidly,” said 15-year head Coach Campbell during team tryouts in November. “If you don’t have that, then the Cougars aren’t your place”.
The coach looks to get the best out of his players on the court and in school. Maximum effort for the team and good grades and attendance are expected of all team members. The coach looks for hard-working and responsible players that have a passion for the game.
The seniors of last year have graduated and the team is now being led by a new class of seniors, juniors, sophomores, and freshmen.
Final cuts were made in the first week of November. The following students of the team are Fahim Adika, Tristan Bowen, Avin Benjamin, Jayden Brito, Marcus Collado, Mekhi Daley, Judah Elmore, Jden Gomez, Sirpatrick Livingston, Erik Llivichuzhca, Tyler Maschino, Melvin Nunez, Osaze Okungbowa, Mark Peralta, Chase Perez and Xavier Agyemang
Coach Campbell works with the women’s varsity basketball coach Mr. Trawally to connect the team with the men’s and women’s teams. Cross-training and practice sessions are commonplace as Coach Campbell and Trawally find them functional team-building exercises and a great way to develop strategies. It has worked in the past and is expected to continue working.
The girl’s basketball season is also kicking off this month.
In an interview with Coach Trawally, the coach of the girl’s basketball team, Trawally says he is looking forward to leading last year’s undefeated division champions again and making more progress into the playoffs.
“From last year, we were the number two team in the city and we made the Final Four of the playoffs,” Trawally said. “We look to win the championship this year.”
From last year’s season, The Girl’s Basketball team ended with a 14-0 record and a loss in the semi-finals.
Like Campbell, Trawally also looks to get the best out of his players on the court and in school. “The types of players that I want are athletic, hard workers, passionate, and team players”.
Trawally clearly looks for players that are coachable, hard-working, responsible, and have a lot of passion for the game.
The Final cuts of the girl’s basketball team include Anna Astre, Brianna Brito, Saran Camara, Adalise Caraballo, Amileon Corporan Cotto, Juanita Guzman, Tymere Moorer, Osayamen Okungbowa, Serena Palau, Fatoumata Siby, and Jocalyn Suarez-Clarke.
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Steven is a member of the Class of '23 at The Laboratory School of Finance and Technology.
Indie Ahl
Apr 21, 2023 at 10:05 am
I loveeeee this sooo much! AMAZING! I absolutely love the way this article was structured! I really liked how this article started off introducing the boys team and then the girls team, sharing commonalities between both boys’ and girls’ team coaches to wrap it up. I thought the transition from the boys to girls team was great and extremely effective, by introducing the cross-training to lead into the girls’ team stats. I thought it was super neat that they do cross-training as a way to help the boys and girls train together to develop strategies and as a team-building exercise. It makes me think that my own school should try that among sports, as it could be quite beneficial as the article mentioned. That was definitely my favorite part of the article, as it was such a cool and surprising aspect. Overall, I loved the article and thought it provided just the right amount of background information and stats on the boys and girls teams without steering away from the focus of the article too much. It was extremely well-written and well-balanced!
Talia Moskowitz
Apr 19, 2023 at 9:18 pm
I was immediately impressed by the great photos included in this article! The quality is really impressive and entices the viewer to continue reading. The content is also super well written. The level of detail and seamless inclusion of quotes is awesome. Keep it up!
Emily Goldstein
Apr 19, 2023 at 12:17 pm
I really enjoyed this article and I typically am not a huge sports fan. I liked the numerous quotes included especially Coach Campbell’s as I think it added a lot of depth and insight that wasn’t already written. I also thought the quote from Coach Trawally added a lot of information and energy into the article. I liked how the article not only focused on the boys basketball team but also the women’s which accommodated a larger audience of readers. Lastly, I thought the structure was really nice and ending on the names of players was a nice way to wrap it up. Overall really good work!!!
Lucy Dockter
Apr 19, 2023 at 11:29 am
Hey! I just had to comment and say this is a great article, and (as a student journalist myself at Inklings News 🙂 I love your inclusion and choices of quotes. They really add personality and depth to your discussion and seem to represent the goals to the team very well. Overall, a great sports article, and I can’t wait to ream more!
Abby Nevin
Apr 18, 2023 at 1:15 pm
Hi! Great job on this article! For someone not as interested in basketball, this article sure proved me wrong because I totally kept reading and loved the story you told here. I really liked how you incorporated the quotes from the coaches because they were meaningful and nicely placed. I could really tell that both Coach Campbell and Coach Trawally care about their athletes and provide a strong sense of leadership for their teams. You represented them well! Keep up the good work, this is awesome.
Tristan Gonzalez
Apr 18, 2023 at 1:13 pm
I really like this article and really appreciate how informative it is. You do a great job in informing the reader about what this basketball season has in store and you compliment this great with quotes from the coaches. I think the quote you included in the second paragraph is very good and does well to establish the tone of the article. I like how you went into detail about the coaches and the values that this team clearly holds.
Sincerely,
Tristan Gonzalez
Cameron Almonte
Apr 18, 2023 at 12:31 pm
This article was really well put together and the use of quotes were very well placed and informative. The articles first quote from head coach Campbell did a great job of introducing the type of team, and coach the article was attempting to display. The article remains interesting throughout the entire article by introducing not only the boys’ basketball team, but the girls’ as well to keep readers interested.
Anna D.
Apr 18, 2023 at 11:19 am
Wow, really great article guys! I’m a student journalist too so it’s so nice to read other students’ work. I especially like how you included the coach’s point of view. It nicely highlights the expectations and rigor of the basketball team. Also, I love that you talked about both the boys and girls teams and provided great photos for both. Really nice job.