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By Angel Tran  (Sports) –

Varsity boys basketball went 6-18 during the regular season overall this winter.  Although this may sound disappointing to some, the players were still looking for a positive outlook.  “We’ve been on a little bit of a slump, we didn’t have that great of a start, but we were giving a lot more effort during practice,”  Junior, Carlos Santistevan said.Him, and others remained positive towards the end of the season, and during the postseason as well.

Coming back this year after losing five seniors, our team was fairly young.  Last season, Head Coach, Dan Noble referred to the season as a “recovery” season and it looks to be like this season was another recovery season as well.  Looking at the statistics, we ended at 4-20 during the 2015-2016 season, with five seniors, so since then, we have improved.  But, what does this 2-game difference in wins mean?  Especially with the age of this group, we can only expect to grow from here, unless we find a dramatic loss of athletes or injuries.  So far, there are 7 main sophomores on the team that have been attending games, meaning that our team is young compared to most other schools, with dominantly junior and senior teams, and the room for growth is there.  Comparatively, the closest ranked schools in the state above and below us, as well as six out of seven main Lincoln high schools are junior or senior dominated, Lincoln High being the only school out of the seven that does not consist of upperclassmen.

One of the many sophomores, Jaylin Hunter, has played on the varsity team since his freshman year, “This season was definitely underachieved but I got better as the season went on,” Hunter said, “[we] started rough but got better as the season went on.”

Another sophomore, Jaden Horton, has found hope in the season as well, “Our record doesn’t show it, but we improved a lot chemistry-wise,” Horton said, “We’re really young, we don’t have any seniors, so that kind of brings us down a little bit, but I only see it progressing in the future because we all have experience.”

Sammy Richardson who is one of the oldest members of the team, has a lot to say about next season, “We’ll be progressing and getting better for sure,” Richardson said, “We have a young team.  In the summer I will workout and get better for the next season.  I’m going to work hard on and off the court.  I struggled with confidence, but I’m working on that too.”

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Head Coach, Dan Noble said, “Next season, they’d better be ready to work.”