Seconds left in the game, tied up, with the Wild’s cheers echoing through the gym.  The Woodgrove Varsity Boys Basketball team has possession and needs a clutch shot to continue their late season run. 

Last year, the team was on pace for something significant  to happen. After going 8-1 in their region, 21-4 for their overall record, and winning districts, they had a lot of  momentum going into the region semifinals. Unfortunately,  they lost a heartbreaker to the team across the street; Loudoun Valley. With 5 returning varsity players and 7 new-to-varsity players, this team is ready to bounce back and stay on the hunt.

Evan Ciaburri is a freshman playing on the Varsity team. From a first year varsity player’s perspective, he is looking in on the team’s hard work that they put in. He mentioned, “The  team is very in sync with one another and very well put together.” For a team to work, it is not just all talent. It is about having chemistry, and Woodgrove has a lot of chemistry. It also comes with support to boost the chemistry. 

Senior Ben Zuczek, the Varsity Starting Point Guard, discussed what the team needs to do to bring them together. He explained, “Just keeping their head up or just being positive if they are having a bad day. I think it is just pushing each other. Everyone pushing for the same goal and bringing everyone’s effort up just brings the whole team around the team drive up to where it should be.” Together, the team is stronger. They have a better chance of their goals for the team’s hunt for what they want for themselves and for the team’s goals to help win games and achieve something higher than regular season games.

 With chemistry, everyone on the team has a role. Zuczek, who plays an important role on the team stated, “Point guards- you got to set people up as a teammate, but at the same time you got to know when to go get yours, and what I mean by that is you got to know when to score.”  As the guard, he has to lead the team, set people up, be loud, handle the ball, and call plays. There are also more leaders on the team, like  seniors Kenny Chicas and Dane Marsh. Last year, Marsh averaged 12.1 PPG, 8.2 REB per game,and 3.3 BLK per game. Chicas will also be able to score lots of points and be an X factor for the team. After averaging 10.0 PPG last year, he looks set for a bigger season this year.

Everyone on this team has goals for the season, and everyone on the team is chasing the same goal . Zuczek claimed, “Main focus, as a team, first I think is winning districts. Last year both regular and postseason, I think our goal has got to be to win regions and qualify for states.” After making it to region semi-finals last year, the team is determined to match that legacy. Coach Kevin Brown, the assistant coach of the team, holds a key role to help the team reach their goal. He said, “We are on the hunt to keep striving to get back to what they did last year, so teams are coming after us because of the success they had.” The team’s players and coaches obviously have goals for themselves, but as a team they are all trying to strive to get to what the team did last year, if not even better.

All of those goals and dreams that they are hunting for all start from practices and green days. Coach Brown shared, “I put a good amount of time in with off season workouts and we had fall league on the weekends at Wakefield High School since day one.  Coach Brown helps the team a good deal  with workouts and green days and to get them prepared for the season. It might not be fun but it pays off in the end. Zuczek explained how a typical green day or practice looked like, saying, “Conditioning days- go out on the track, go to turf 2 in the back, but those aren’t the most fun. Or we will have open gym pickup stuff, or we will have skill stuff and in the season we will start off with stretching and then we go into some drills like cohesion drills, some passing drills, or finishing drills.

The hard work pays off, because by the end of the season every  team wants those championship banners up in the gym for the school, community, and themselves. “At the end of the day, it’s really just an attitude for yourself. It’s you vs yourself, you versus your previous day to the next day,” shared Zuczek.