It’s winter time, and for Freedom Area School District, that means it’s time to start the indoor sports. During this time of the year, there is Indoor Track, Girls’ Basketball, Boys’ Basketball, Wretsling and Hockey. The Boys’ Basketball team has had the addition of many new members, all of which have made contributions to both the varsity and junior varsity teams, despite the loss of some strong seniors that graduated from the team.
The Freedom boys started their season off with two scrimmages and a tournament over the course of two days. Their first scrimmage was at home against Western Beaver on Nov. 26, and the second one was away against the Rochester Rams on Nov. 30. The two-day tournament took place on Dec. 9 and Dec. 10 at South Side Area High School.
On Dec. 9, the boys started off the tournament against the Rochester Rams, a team which had bested the Bulldogs in a previous scrimmage. The boys started the first half of the game trailing close to the Rams, but fell flat in the second half, losing the game 55-82.
“I think anytime you lose players from a team that have been in a program for a while, it affects [the team], but I’m pretty confident with our senior leadership,” coach Greg Cercone said when asked if the loss of last year’s seniors has had an impact on the team.
“It affected us in some ways but not to the extent where we have to rebuild. We’re better than we were last year,” junior Santino Guandolo added.
Concerning improvements within team, Cercone stated that he wants to see the team work on their turnovers, and control of the ball, leading to improvement from game to game. Similarly, Guandolo said that he wants to see better transitions from the team, better teamwork overall and assisting one another from one play to the next.
On Dec. 10, the boys played against Western Beaver at Southside as a consolation game for the tournament. Similarly, the Bulldogs played against Western Beaver during their first scrimmage of the season. The Bulldogs kept a consistent lead during the game, despite Western Beaver’s attempts to take control of the game. Senior Zach Greene scored five 3-pointers during the game, which aided in keeping the team in the lead.
Ultimately, in the second round of the tournament, the boys were triumphant again, winning the game 60-38. With the season finally starting, one of the questions that stands out is: How far will the team go this year?
As the season continues, the coaches and the players hope to make it to playoffs this year.
“As far as we mentally think, we can. I think if we put our minds to it we can get as far as we want. Hopefully, [we’ll make] playoffs,” Guandolo said concerning how far the team may go this year.
“Playoffs, and as far as we can go. Ideally for us, playoffs will be something new to us, but we’re trying to get better every game and get some momentum going into the playoffs,” Cercone said.
With many more games left in this year’s season, it’s up to the boys to see how far Freedom will go this year.