By: Tyler Stark
Photos by: Abby Miller
Redwood Men’s Basketball enters tonight’s match up against Mission Oak with a 4-2 record overall. The team is coming off of a four-day tournament that saw the Rangers go 2-2 in their match ups.
Head coach, Jason Black, believes that, “The best thing we saw was flashes of how good we can be. This team will benefit greatly from both our wins as well as our losses”
Tonight’s game is an exciting one for the team as it is the first home game of the season. For the first time all year, the boys will get to play in front of a large Ranger crowd, and a bunch of cheering fans.
Coach Black says that he expects this game to be an exciting one for his boys. Black says, “Playing at home tonight will be big for the kids because it’s been a while since they have played a home game.”
Shooting guard Nahir Karimi, ‘22 is very excited for tonight’s match up. Karimi says, “The energy will be huge for our first home game and I’m excited to see our student section erupt.”
Playing at home will certainly be good for the boys. They have consistently been on the road the last two weeks, so a home game should be good not only for them, but it’ll be exciting for the fans in attendance as well.
While the boys did not have a terrible performance by any means necessary, they did drop two games. Power forward Aahton Ibarra, ‘22 believes that the team’s struggles weren’t necessarily due to the competition they played.
Ibarra says, “The toughest part of the tournament wasn’t the talent of other teams, it was the fact that we had a whole year off of basketball.”
Ibarra goes on to say that tonight he hopes to see the team show good teak chemistry.
Forward, Kolby Howard, ‘22 believes that the main thing he wants to see from his team is them doing well tonight. “We need to learn how to play relaxed, even in situations where things aren’t going our way.”
Being calm in games where there’s a lot of pressure on you is not an easy thing to do. Learning how to play with pressure is something that the boys will learn with experience; it’ll come as the season progresses.
Oftentimes the key to winning games is working hard and giving it your all. That is exactly what center Miguel Williams, ‘22 wants to see from his team. Williams says, “I wanna see us go out there, hustle, and give it our all.”
Tyler Stark
Tyler Stark ('24) is in his freshmen year, and this is his first year writing for the Redwood Gigantea. Tyler hopes to work for Sports Illustrated in the future. you can contact him by email with: tyler.st3800@vusd.us
Tags: basketball, Redwood, redwood journalism, redwood rangers, redwood sports, varsity, visalia
