The varsity boys basketball team finished last season with an overall record of 20-6. They clinched the district title for the 15th year in school history under Head Coach Jeff Hawes.

Last season, the highly decorated varsity basketball team had a slow start, despite beating Rock Ridge in their opening game 57-51, they fell to Eastern Mennonite 63-58 the following game. They bounced back with four wins in a row before back to back losses to Freedom 51-55 and Cedar Valley 47-50 in mid-December.

Although Riverside was their only district loss during the regular season, they went 7-5 in their first 12 games.

“The season started slow, [but] the hard work paid off and coming together as a team made us better,” said senior Matthew Larner.

Despite a rough start to the year, the team came back and finished the season strong. They beat Riverside during their second match up 56-41 to win the Potomac District title for the fourth year in a row. “It was definitely exciting because we got to see all our hard work pay off and celebrate as a team and the pit afterwards,” said Larner.

After winning 12 games in a row, the team (19-5) hosted the first round of the region play against Stone Bridge. They lost to the Bulldogs on Feb 24 (57-52). 

As the team prepared for another season, they continued to train over the summer. 

“[We started training early] for practices and this season to not start slow and to have a better start,” said Larner. “We had a great team last year and are looking forward to hopefully winning regions.”

They graduated nine seniors leaving many spots to be filled at the end of last season.¨It’s definitely upsetting because I was good friends with most of them, but the juniors are good this year, so hopefully our team will still be just as good and just as successful,” said Larner.

The team is ready to start another season with eight current seniors who played on varsity last season as juniors.  To maintain their skills, the team started with basketball camps including one led by Hawes. The program took place at St. Mary’s University and lasted four days. Other camps in the area were open for everyone, such as PaulWeb and Eastern Harrisonburg.

“Most of them are one day camps with three or four games a day, but there are some camps over the summer that are two days long,”  said Larner. 

This basketball season starts on Nov. 17 with the team taking on South Lakes at home.