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On Nov. 30, Aragon hosted its annual alumni game, a tradition over 35 years old. This year, the current Dons (2-3 overall)* won in a close 60-59 game.
In the final moments of the game, the alumni were able to tie
59-59 with a free throw. But junior center Murphy Caffo took another free throw to win the game 60-59 for the Dons.
In the first half, aided by an efficient offense and strong defense, the Dons held a 31-24 lead over the alumni.
The alumni game not only gives the players more practice but an opportunity to get advice from the alumni.
“Be patient and don’t expect everything to happen super quick,” said Henry Kazan, ‘17. “Listen to your coaches because they’ve been around awhile they know what they’re talking about.”
On top of that, staying motivated was another tip given by the alumni.
“You might have a slump,” said Max Liebergesell, ‘11. “If you’re a shooter on the team, you might not be making some shots. You worked hard in practice for these moments. Keep your head up, you’re gonna be okay.”
The team fell short in the semi-finals of the Central Coast Section in the 2018-19 season, but lost to the eventual champions, Mountain View (4-0 overall)*, in double overtime.
“[Last season] was a rollercoaster ride,” said head coach Hosea Patton. “We improved when we needed to in order to get us into the sectionals, which we got into the semi-finals of CCS. So we peaked at the right time and we improved at the right time.”
The Dons are working towards getting everyone involved on the court this season.
“This year on offense we’re gonna have to move a lot more,” said senior forward and guard Derek Morimoto. “I think just overall, we got a lot of new people this year, so you got to relearn how everyone is and how we all play together.”
To strengthen their overall game, Aragon welcomed a new assistant coach, Ben Batory.
“We have a new assistant coach coming in with a bunch of new things,” Patton said. “He comes from a program that has been successful winning some CCS championships, so we’re going to use a lot of his stuff and hope to maybe it’s kind of the ingredients that get us over that hump in CCS we’ve been trying to get over, but we’ll definitely use a lot of our stuff from last year as well.”
The Dons plan to have a more fluid and a moving offense to take advantage of opponents’ weaknesses.
“We have some specific play that we adapt and adjust during the game when we see where we have a mismatch that we can take advantage of,” Patton said. “This year, with our new coach, we will have a multi-optional offense that kind of continuously flows so there’s seven, eight, nine options off just one phase of the offense.”
The Dons are looking forward to the upcoming season, focusing on tournaments, rivalry games and CCS.
“We go to an Oakland tournament [and] the teams there are pretty good. I think hopefully [we will] show that we can compete with these really physical teams from the East Bay,” said senior guard, forward and center Matthew Mukai. “Hopefully we play well in the regular season to get to CCS because I think we do have the talent we just gotta practice.”
To achieve their CCS goal, Aragon is working on an explosive start of the season to clinch their spot in the tournament.
“We try to get to CCS just from winning a lot in the preseason,” Mukai said. “When the regular season comes around we just try to start off well and win our first four out of eight games; kind of seal the bid for CCS early so we don’t have to worry about it later.”
Aragon’s next game will be in the Burlingame tournament on Dec. 12.
