Meet this year’s CHS Boys’ Varsity Basketball team: faster, guard-heavy, better shooters. This winter season, the basketball team will be playing to these strengths to bring excitement to the court. They have been working tirelessly since August to prepare for this upcoming season.
After nine seniors graduated last spring, this year’s team brought up a lot of players from the JV squad to varsity. Although the team is younger this year, “we haven’t missed too much of a beat,” says Varsity Coach JD Laaperi, “The personnel is a little bit different. We don’t have a 6’5” guy in the middle. We’re guard heavy, but we’re really working on freeing up those guards on the perimeter to get outside shots.” This year, Coronado will be competing in the Eastern League in Division II, it’s tougher compared to last year.
During pre-season, the varsity team has worked on developing a style of play that focuses on tiring out the opposing team. With this in mind, Coach Laaperi has been tiring his team out with plenty of running drills at practice. “We want to wear teams out by the third quarter. Since the last week of August, we’ve been running. We can go ten to twelve guys deep, while other teams will go five to seven guys deep.” Coronado’s advantage of having an entire team of well-conditioned players allows them to play as a volume-shooting team, making fifty to sixty shots per game.
“With our style of play,” says team captain Myles Manning, “we’re just gonna be a fun team to watch. If you come out to the games, I guarantee you will be excited.” As co-captains, Bruen Roulier and Myles Manning have been working on fostering a positive practicing environment, developing a collectively strong team. When asked what strengths this year’s team has, Roulier said, “We can push the ball better than any year I have ever seen. We have so many guards, and we’re all very quick.” The following video shows the team hard at practice, working on driving the ball quickly and efficiently.
Over the Thanksgiving recess, the team has worked every day for two hours in preparation for the upcoming game against the San Diego Academy in the Coronado High gym. Come out on December 2 to watch the team in their first game of the season.
Upcoming Game:
Saturday, December 2 vs. San Diego Academy at Coronado @ 7:30 PM
