On Dec. 6, at BVH, the varsity boys’ basketball team suffered a great loss against San Diego High School (SDHS). The team underwent a struggle through all quarters, but were able to catch up towards the end. Head coach Stevon Curry, talks about his philosophy prior to the start of the game.
“[My] coaching philosophy is basically so that we could play hard, play extremely well together and not be selfish. We do not want any hero balls, so everybody has to have that selfless mentality. As long as we have that, then we have aggressiveness on the defensive end. I think we should fare well,” Curry said.
Curry emphasizes working and sticking together as a team. He strives to prevent selfishness throughout the game in order to keep the team united. He also points out having a strong defense will keep their team up. Shooting guard, small forward and freshman, Brandon Rosales explains how he and his team prepared for the game.
“I listen to music and just be prepared when the game comes. We all come together as a team by having our game plan ready, knowing[ing] our strategies and how it will affect our opponents,” Rosales said.
Rosales explains how the team gets into that game-day mindset and does not let any other distractions interfere. They go over their strategies and plans prior to the game. Center, power forward and junior Adam Mitchell explains what he does under pressure and what advice he gives.
“Take a mental break, detach yourself, ask your coach for a break or just take a good deep breath. Do not worry about anything else. Worry about what you are doing, how to do it correctly and focus on it,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell lists his methods of staying focused, even when there is a lot of pressure. He emphasizes drowning out everything else around him and staying focused. Curry explains how he controls his whole team under pressure.
“I believe anytime you prep, you are prepared as much as possible, [resulting in becoming] extremely confident. It is a lot of different situations that over my experience I feel equipped for the majority of the situations, Curry said. “With that, you have to prepare the players. I am very confident in the players because of how much they care about this and how much I feel they believe in what we do as a culture.”
Curry emphasizes the importance of preparing beforehand to enhance the team’s confidence as a whole. He prepares his team for numerous game situations and keeps them on their feet. Rosales explains a challenging situation and what he thinks him and his team could have done differently on the court.
“We struggled to keep up. But, we brought the effort and energy coming into the fourth quarter leading to a comeback. We should have started off strong from the beginning, but also focusing more on our defense and moving the ball more on offense,” Rosales said.
Despite SDHS taking the lead from the beginning, the Barons were able to redeem themselves and tie the score towards the end. The Barons faced many challenges playing against SDHS according to Rosales, but they were able to bring the score up towards the fourth quarter. The Barons suffer a final score of 56-59 after persevering until the very end. Mitchell mentions how he feels about the game after the loss and how it has impacted him as a player.
“[It was] definitely a reality check, and I am not where I need to be as a player, but I will work harder in practice to improve,” Mitchell said.
Although this game did not meet the Barons’ expectations, they were able to learn from it and reflect on how they could use this game to improve as a team and as individuals. Mitchell explains what to work on and how to improve for future games.
“We are all very gelled together. We have known each other for a long time, so we know how we are each going to play and what we can do. [After our loss,] we [still felt we] are definitely the better team and we will get better as the season progresses.”
