This season for the boys varsity basketball team has been a product of anticipation and hard work, but with this anticipation and work comes new expectations that the team has to face, especially for this season’s junior class.

Not only are the junior players facing their first year on the varsity team, but they also have to rise to certain standards that last year’s team set for them, which creates obstacles for the young team.

Half of the 14 players on the varsity roster are juniors, and only two of those juniors, Luke and Gage Bican, have had prior varsity experience. This youth creates obstacles for the team.

Some of these obstacles that the juniors will be facing this season are becoming accustomed to the pace of varsity games.

Making the transition from playing on a junior varsity team to a varsity basketball team can be seen as difficult, mainly due to the high pace and energy that comes along with a varsity game.

Kevin Niemczura, the varsity head coach, said, “In terms of juniors with obstacles, the varsity games are so much faster [and] more physical, where [this year’s juniors] really haven’t seen that at the J.V or freshman level, so a lot of them will have to play a lot quicker, and make faster decisions.”

Junior Jake Agresta is a guard on the varsity squad. He said, “It’s definitely different, going from playing in J.V games to playing on a varsity team. It’s something I’m sure we’re gonna get used to. It just comes with practice.”

One of the main ways the juniors transition into playing on a varsity team is through their practices and working on areas that the team may struggle in.

Junior Nico Ferreri, also a guard, said, “We practice a lot of conditioning within our drills. Because we aren’t the biggest team, we need to be able to outrun our opponents and keep up.”

On top of the transition onto the varsity team, the juniors also have big shoes to fill from the teams from past years. Niemczura said, “In terms of our team from last year, Ryan Bailey was our top senior who was [scoring] about fourteen points a game, so someone’s going to have to step up and replace that scoring.”

Although it seems like these are extremely large obstacles that are being set up for the junior players, according to Niemczura, they can be overcome.

Niemczura said, “A lot of the ways [the juniors] can overcome these problems is just game experience. Working hard in practice does a lot, but until you get into that game you can’t fully grasp how tough the game is.”

These challenges have not stopped the junior varsity players from keeping a positive outlook on the upcoming season, however.

Forward Gage Bican said, “I’m confident in all the juniors on the team, as well as all the seniors. I think that any problems that we face, we can work through.”

Ferreri said, “I’m excited about this season. I know we’re a young team and it seems like there are a lot of challenges ahead of us, but we’re ready to surprise everyone.”

Agresta shares the same optimistic view as Ferreri. “I’m excited for this season, and I have faith in all the junior players as well as the whole team,” Agresta said.

Although this season holds challenges for the junior players, they still have an optimistic attitude and hope to make this season as successful as possible through their hard work.