The 8th grade boys

By Coach Philip Choi

The goal for this year, as it was the past years, was to make it to the playoffs. The question during pre-season was how I was going to integrate the four players who have been playing since 3rd grade with 3 players who only started playing last year. I reviewed every player and came to the conclusion that we were not a fast team, we were not a tall team, we were not a winning team; based on the fact that we never made the playoffs.

What we did have was players with different skills, some are good shooters, some good passers, some good rebounders, and some good defenders. So to win we would have to play as a unit, a team. No one on the team was responsible for one duty. Everyone was responsible for every duty. I knew the players really wanted to win and during pre-season I witnessed that when they were down by ten in the fourth quarter and came back to take the lead only to lose it in overtime. Perry had a four point play, hitting a three and being fouled. He had his best quarter ever.

At the start of the season, I saw that the skill level of this team had improved from the past year, three players stood out. Nicholas was hitting his shots and a lot of them early in the games and were three pointers. Elton was blocking shots and getting offensive rebounds and getting put backs. Perry was leading the defense and hitting shots.

Even more important was the contributions of the other four players on the team. Kevin was mainly at point and moved the ball around beautifully. Jon played great defense and hit a few three’s. Greg had a couple sweet drives to the basket. Simon was doing the dirty work, rebounding and getting the garbage baskets.

The team had some great quarters and some bad quarters. The bad quarters, the team would miss all their shots and not even score, but the good quarters, they were hitting a high percentage, scoring 17 points during one quarter. Even the opposing coach said to me, “I have never seen a team shoot like that”.

The team ended the season 5-3 and finally reached the playoffs for the first time. In the past, this team had a lot of adversity to play through and they did that and improved themselves along the way. During the playoffs they had to play the number one seed and did not get pass them. But that does not take away the season they had, one that they can be proud about. They played together as a team, they won as a team and they lost as a team. They never blamed each other for missing shots or playing bad defense but I saw the opposite, they were encouraging each other and supporting each other, which is the meaning teammates.

On a personal note, I wish them all the best in high school and success for the future. I know that they will take with them memories for a life time as I have. It has been my pleasure coaching these boys and seeing them grow into young men.