Photo Credit: Victoria Santana
The Aragon varsity boys basketball team has recently started practices and is ready for the new season.
Last season, head coach Hosea Patton felt that the team had a few issues with being able to focus on the court.
“We didn’t do as well as we could have done in league [last year],” Patton said. “We let a couple of games slip away. My goal this year is to … make sure that the team … [can] understand what it is we’re doing and seize the moment.”
The coach makes sure the team is concentrated during practice with different types of drills. One example of these drills is one that works on layups. If the coach observes that the team is losing focus while trying to pass and layup, he stops the drill, and makes the players run liners.
“[When] they lose focus, like when the timing is off or the path has become bad, they have consequences,” Patton said.
Practices have started and are six days per week for about two and a half hours each day. During these practices, the team has gotten to know each other better.
“They’ve shown a sense of togetherness and commitment that they want to be the best they can be and leave some kind of legacy before they graduate,” Patton said.
The team this year is very young, with only five seniors and the rest being juniors and sophomores.
“I’m excited for my last year because I’ve been in varsity since I was a sophomore,” said senior Robert Campbell. “I’ve been having fun on the team [and] growing as a player.”
Besides the seniors, the new sophomores this year have also been fitting in and have gotten to know the other players within the team.
“I knew a lot of the people already,” said sophomore Jasper Caffo. “It just feels like all the people are really welcoming so I didn’t have a hard time adjusting to the team.”
“They show their … willingness to be coached, to make adjustments, and to continue to improve and give it their all”
Part of developing their bond on the court is conscious attention to each other given during practice.
“Another drill that we do is called accountability brothers,” Patton said. “They pair up and talk about something that either went on during their day or something they want to work on … so they can start getting to know each other. And you can see it before games and around campus. They’re a little more tight-knit than last year’s team.”
The process this year for getting on the team included multiple days of tryouts, but players were also able to show their commitment during pre-tryout conditioning. Workouts also ran for six weeks during the summer and included conditioning, drills and learning plays.
“They’ve shown that they are committed based on the summer workouts,” Patton said. “They show their … willingness to be coached, to make adjustments and to continue to improve and give it their all. To me, it helped me decide when I pick a team.”
The players each have their own goals for this season.
“I would love to be a starter by the end of this season, because I [want to] see what it’s like on the team, said sophmore Robert Kelley.
Other players look forward to a season of competition and the goal to win the Central Coast section championships.
“I’m looking forward to playing in the quads and in front of a big audience,” Caffo said. “I can’t wait for that.”
So far, the team has played two games this season.
“We only lost by a little bit in both games,” Campbell said. “We started the season taking off the rust so I think we are only gonna get better from there.”
The Dons’ next home game will be against Burlingame on Jan. 11 at 6 p.m.
