Hannah Buckley

Staff Writer

The Foran Boys’ Basketball Team is back and better than ever. This popular winter sports team is led by junior captains, Zach Tavitian and Brett Huber, and head coach, Tim Swaller, along with assistant coaches, Joe Gill and Jim Economopoulous.

Ending their season with a record of 4-16 last year, the boys are ready to go into the season with a new look on the game. The coaches, along with the players, have begun to innovate. “We’re trying a lot of new plays and things. After last season we’ve decided to try something different,” says Tavitian. He also contributes the trouble last season to poor leadership.

The team only lost four seniors to graduation last year. The boys seem to think that the loss is so little that it shouldn’t affect the team much.  “I’m feeling pretty good about it. We have a lot of returning players and we’re hoping to make playoffs,” says Huber, when asked about the upcoming season.

The only senior playing this year is Jordan Townsend. “Being the only senior on the team this year makes me want to work harder. It means I really have to get on the guys and help the coaches out,”  says Townsend.

Last season the team’s 4-16 record had them 4 games short of making states. In order to make it into the state tournament the team has to have 8 wins. The team’s goal this year is to make it into the tournament.

The game the boys are looking forward to most is their game against Law. Their especially excited for the home game against them.  They can all agree that the game is fun because of the hype that surrounds it. Junior, Mike Sciuto, finds the game exciting because of the crowd that attends. Tavitian adds saying he likes the game because he “loves having all the students there. The massive student sections and the crowds cheering are great”.

This year a lot of boys are trying out for the team. “It’s mostly a junior team but that’s okay because we’ve all been playing since freshman year,” Sciuto explains. Tavitian thinks that at least 20 kids are trying out for the freshman team alone. He continued on to say that a lot of other kids are trying out too. There should be some great numbers for the team this year.