Marissia Potamianos and Jamie Boeheim
Staff Writer and Editor of Promotion
On Sunday, March 5 at 4:30 p.m. the Jamesville-DeWitt High School Varsity Boys Basketball Team is battling against one of three teams that they lost to in the regular season, Syracuse Academy of Science in the Class A Sectional Final. In the regular season, the J-D team has also lost to Bishop Ludden and Westhill giving them a 20-3 record.The Red Rams hope to get redemption and achieve their team goal of winning the sectional championship against what Head Coach Jeff Ike said is a “very aggressive” SAS team.
Throughout the season, Coach Ike and the players all had team goals along with individual goals. Junior Takuya LaClair said his individual goal was to do everything he could to make the team successful and, “play my best every game.” As for junior and captain Buddy Boeheim, his goal for the team since the beginning of the season has been to work hard in practice and win games to win a sectional title. Coach Ike said, “my first goal as a coach is to obviously win a league championship, followed by regional and state championships, but that is also a goal I have every year.” The team has achieved their coach’s first goal as they won the league championship, and they hope to continue achieving the goals that Coach Ike has set for the team.
Throughout the season leading up to sectionals, the team has played many exciting and tough games. Coach Ike and the players both agree that their biggest and most memorable game was the Sectional Semi-Final on Saturday, Feb. 25 against Bishop Grimes. “It was an overtime game and it was a whole team contribution. Everybody did something in order for us to win and I thought that was great,” said Coach Ike. Captain and senior Terrence Echols agrees and adds that “we faced a lot of adversity that game and I’m just glad we were able to come together and win.”
The team has currently been working hard in practice to prepare for the difficult game on Sunday. LaClair said the team has been going over plays, discussing game strategies to win, and practicing shooting and ball handling. “We need to focus in practice and watch film on our last game that we lost to SAS,” added Boeheim. Coach Ike said they need to have a good week of practice along with “being focused on defense We have to switch it up and work on man instead of zone. Our full court and half court pressure needs to improve as well.” Coach Ike said the last time they played them was a “hard-fought” game.
The Red Rams hope to continue their success as they head to the Sectional Finals on Sunday.
