Freshman basketball muddles along

Following the trend of new freshman teams in Aragon’s sports, a new freshman boys’ basketball team was created this year. The team hopes to accommodate and nurture rising young athletes at Aragon to becoming experienced veteran players.

A rising number of freshman basketball teams in surrounding schools helped to spur the creation of Aragon’s freshman team. Coach Hosea Patton says, “It was actually being questioned [why we didn’t have one]. Most schools had [teams] last year. We didn’t plan for one originally.” Parents inquiring about a freshman team after tryouts this year helped in making this team a reality.

With limited resources and funding, the team faces some setbacks, most notably the lack of a league and very limited practice times. Because of this, the freshman team will not be playing in any quads or games alongside Aragon’s upper division basketball teams. Patton says, “We only practice two times a week. There was no money for the freshman program.”

In spite of these problems, Patton strives simply to provide experience and a place of improvement for players who can hopefully rise later on to Aragon’s higher level teams. He says, “A lot of them came from just playing on playgrounds without referees. We want them to have the fundamentals.”

Similarly, the freshman players remain undeterred by their limited resources, hoping to draw as much out of the experience as possible. Freshman Michael Chiang says, “It is like AYSO; like a youth basketball team for fun. It is more like getting more experience; [like moving] to the next level and helping the teams out.”

Though the team meets only twice a week, they practice just as vigorously as the junior varsity teams, those that Patton serves as an assistant coach to. Patton says, “I mirror a lot of what the junior varsity teams practice on. We work on individual’s skills and specific skills at practice.” Though wide ranges of skill are covered during practice, Patton tries to ensure each player receives enough attention towards basic skills such as passing and shooting.

“Improvement from each player individually – [we] want to see overall that we improve,” says Patton.