Kelly Walsh boys’ basketball team left a big impact on the program last year and made history. The team was full of outstanding seniors who wanted that state title and got it. Now this year the boys are very young and have a lot of growing to do.

“Our goals is to make the state tournament, which is a far cry from last year. Our goal was to win it last year, we knew we had a chance” said varsity boys’ basketball coach, Randy Roden.

He explained that the rest of the state is older and more experienced compared to this years’ team, so that is why their goal is just to make it to the state tournament. The team scored 153 points at the state tournament last year; however, only 2 of the points are returning.

Brooks Browning, a junior on the basketball team said, “My personal goal is to continuously work hard and keep pushing myself. As a team, I would like for us to always give it our best effort in practice and games and I’d like for us to make it to the state tournament. Considering how young we are this would be a great experience for us and would better prepare us for next year.”

As Brooks did get a varsity letter last year, which was his sophomore year, and had a good amount of playing time, he will know what is coming for him and he will be prepared for the high, intense atmosphere of playing on the varsity court.

        Considering the team won the state title last year, there may be a lot of pressure on them this year; however, it is a totally different team. There is only one senior, Carter Lami, on the team this year, so the team is made up of many juniors and a couple of sophomores.

Despite the youth on the team, is there still pressure to win?

“Ohh, yes and no… Anyone that knows anything about our team there shouldn’t be any pressure. This is a totally new situation, totally new team. There is no relevance associated with what happened last year, but the media, there is pre-season rankings, and I’m sure ya know some people throw us in there and didn’t understand that the graduation just decimated us. So, I think the boys are probably going to feel some of that just because of the association, but they shouldn’t.”

The boys will have to not let that pressure over run their team in order for them to get to the state tournament. They will have to not focus on last year’s win and focus on the team now.

“There is some pressure, but we should try to not focus on what’s pressuring us, but instead, we should focus on pushing ourselves to do our best each and every day. If we focus on us and what we can do in the present, we will be fine” said Browning.