Boys basketball starts off behind, looking to improve
The boys basketball team has been off to a rocky start this season, although things are looking positive for the future of the team.
Last year, the team didn’t do as well as they had hoped to; the depth in talent wasn’t where it needed to be.
This year is a different story, with an unfortunate ending of the season in sections last year against Tartan, the team is looking to go past that and see how far they can go.
Led by the new coach Brady Hannigan with his first season as a head coach for this team everyone is curious to see what he will do.
Hannigan is the newest and probably most important addition to this young and growing team.
Sophomore Cooper Yeary is excited for what he will bring to the table. “I think he’s a great coach. I have a lot of respect for him and I’m excited for what he has in store for the team,” Yeary said.
With a 13-12 record last season, the team lost some seniors from the previous starting rotation. Junior Devante Hatcher doesn’t think these losses will be a negative thing for the team. They are looking to improve from that record and maybe go farther into sections this year.
“The main goal for this team is to do well in the regular season and go win some games in the playoffs. If we do that I think we can walk away happy,” Hatcher said.
Losing players is not always a bad thing, it gives some younger and new guys a chance, which gives the team some new strengths to help them out for the season. The team is working toward improving those strengths, so on game days they are ready to compete.
Senior Lucas Braun believes this is how this team needs to go about things this season. “We are pretty young but I think we are a faster team than a lot of the teams we have to face this season,” Braun said.
With some big name competitors in their conference they will have to be ready for some fierce competition. Getting beyond that 13-12 record again will not come easy and they know it.
“A big game for us will be the Cretin game. That’s a game the whole team wants to win. Also, Woodbury. They’re one of the better teams in our conference and one of our biggest rivals so it’d be big for us to win those games,” Yeary said.
Every solid team has some key players that are crucial to getting the job done. There are a couple names to keep in mind while watching a game.
“Manny Jingco provides a lot of scoring for us, Joe haggard and Devontae Hatcher play a big role on the boards, and Garrett Cocoran is a solid shooter from the outside,” Braun said.
These boys are on a mission to have a successful year like every year, but maybe they can get some more people interested from some big wins early on in the season.
“It’s always fun to get a home win with a big student section, after a game like that it’s really easy to get on a role,” Hatcher said.
Matthew McGinley is a junior at Stillwater area high school. He went to Stillwater Jr. High. He is involved in hockey, baseball, and football. He is a...
Conner Cole • Feb 13, 2017 at 11:57 am
The author makes sure to use several different point of views and angles to find out the cause of the teams struggles resulting in a 3-19 record
Sam Johnson • Feb 12, 2017 at 11:46 pm
I think the quotes really help you get a feel for how the team is feeling and the story tells more about how they are looking for future success rather than they have had past failure, which makes it positive and hopeful
Linnea Phillips • Feb 10, 2017 at 10:06 am
Very informative, great details and descriptive language. You can tell that you really care about the sport and the team.
Gideon Bimpey • Feb 10, 2017 at 8:15 am
I like how the article starts off showing how how the team was doing bad last year and progressed into the players on the team. The article had great format and used strong quotes.
Gideon Bimpey • Feb 10, 2017 at 8:14 am
I like how the article starts off showing how how the team was doing bad last year and progressed into the players on the team. The article had great format and used strong quotes.
Nicholas Gag • Feb 10, 2017 at 7:17 am
I really liked how you brought in last years record and talked about all of the changes. You got great interviews from players of all ages.
Maya Aflakpi • Feb 9, 2017 at 10:58 pm
I really like how the photos in the photo story weren’t staged and showed the true excitement of the crowd. I liked how this article was giving a lot of variety about the basketball team. It talked about the coach, how the season was doing, the players etc. The quotes were also very good.
Hailey Buelow • Feb 9, 2017 at 9:35 pm
good article with a variety of perspectives of kids from all different grades. it’s also nice because it has a positive theme to it even though the team didn’t have the best start, well written article !
Emma Lowey • Feb 9, 2017 at 8:26 pm
I was super intrigued by this article, it was very interested especially for people who aren’t caught up with sports. It showed the hopes and aspirations of our basketball team very well. The quotes were also very powerful! Awesome article!
Craig Sanislo • Feb 9, 2017 at 5:34 pm
I liked how the article was positive about the team and their record. Matt wrote the article in a way that put an upbeat spin on kind of a grim situation. The quotes were about what the team could do to improve or do better during season, and how they were a young team in the rebuilding stage.
Kayla Gjerde • Feb 9, 2017 at 3:37 pm
I love how positive this article is even though the ponies have had some downfalls. The people interviewed had some really good quotes.
Emma Salmi • Feb 9, 2017 at 12:52 pm
I like how he has interviews from people of different ages, it’s good to get multiple perspectives. I like how it talked about last season and how the team plans to improve upon that.
Thomas Johnson • Feb 9, 2017 at 12:48 pm
There was great research behind this article through showing us the differences in the team from this year and last year. Hopefully, the team can turn it around as they seem optimistic about getting some wins.
Katie Tanski • Feb 9, 2017 at 11:38 am
Goode use of quotes and I love how detailed this story is.
Adam Johnson • Feb 9, 2017 at 11:00 am
Really good article. The different perspective from all of the different players definitely give a good insight on the strengths and weaknesses of our team.
Kevin Thole • Feb 9, 2017 at 10:54 am
This article has very good flow and presented the information in a concise way. The quotes were good and the article really presented the readers with a story.
Alex Ehde • Feb 9, 2017 at 10:04 am
Very well-written article, I liked how you wrote about the positives of the team, but also didn’t hide the rough start of the season. It gives a good look on how the season is going so far and how they hoped to change the outcome.
Andrew Wilcek • Feb 8, 2017 at 11:49 am
Great Article, really liked how he talked about negatives and positives of young guys. I like how he recapped the previous season and how that ended and talked about returning players. He misspelt Garrets name however. All around good article, the piece on Hannigan is good with good quotes.
Ashlyn Aarness • Feb 4, 2017 at 1:53 pm
The article is really well laid out. You made it easy to understand basketball. The title works well with the story. Information and interviews were really nice. Good job.
Jake Welshons • Jan 19, 2017 at 11:01 am
I like how detailed this article is. Very cool how you got more than one perspective of starters.
Rustam R • Jan 18, 2017 at 11:17 am
Great story really well chosen title. Good information, looks like a lot of research has been done. I like how the writer made the story motivational and showed that they still have a chance.
Allison Heintz • Jan 18, 2017 at 10:07 am
I like the title of the story, it shows how strong our pony teams are even when we are having a bad season. The author did good by approaching the losing streak and makings it seem like we’re looking forward to do much better. This is a very well put together article especially considering the circumstances
Sonia Moran • Jan 18, 2017 at 9:57 am
Easy to read. Sounds like you know a lot about basketball. I love how you used different grades for your interviews. Great way to inform us about the season so far.
Sam Johnson • Jan 18, 2017 at 12:06 am
I think the quotes really do a good job of explaining the emotions of the team. The article shows a good knowledge of basketball and goes in depth about the past, present and future of the team. Good creative way to tell about the season thus far.
Ebbie Benson • Jan 17, 2017 at 11:30 pm
I liked how you showed the strengths and weaknesses of the team from different sources, and used a lot of quotes. Using past records was a good way to give a positive feeling to the upcoming season.
Jack Reinseth • Jan 17, 2017 at 11:08 pm
Well put together, easy to read, and good use of quotes. I liked how you interviewed students from all grades, it didn’t seem biased with that.
Christian Anderson • Jan 17, 2017 at 8:48 pm
Good use of quotes, and really good insight on the team, but the transitions between the paragraphs seemed rough. Other than smoothing out the transitions, it’s really good article.
Olivia • Jan 17, 2017 at 7:15 pm
The story shows in-depth knowledge of the basketball team, and an understanding of basketball overall. Good body paragraphs and use of supporting quotes
Katie Freichels • Jan 17, 2017 at 6:52 pm
I like how you made something positive out of this article and how you didn’t just focus on the negatives of their team. I like how you got many quotes from various people which gave the article different view points on their season from not only the players but their new coach also.
Ryan Berg • Jan 17, 2017 at 5:55 pm
Very well written article, it gives a good look into the basketball team this year. I liked how you focused mainly on the positives of the team, talking about the bright future. However, you didn’t leave out the fact that it hasn’t been the best start.
Ryan Shepard • Jan 17, 2017 at 9:30 am
I like how the interviews were with students from all different ages with a sophomore, junior, and senior. Also, you didn’t only talk about the boys you included their thoughts on the new coach and what they thought of him this far into the year.