After having holding a good season last year, the boys’ basketball team aims to improve their talents yet again. The team ended with an 18-14 record, losing a heartbreaking playoff game to Niles North to end the season. That loss is a big motivator for the team this year and inspires the Wolves to prepare themselves as one of the best teams in the conference.
“I do believe that the way we ended last year will help motivate us and push us to play better and accomplish our goals this season. We had such a close and intense playoff game and had a solid season last year where we had our first winning record in 10 years,” senior Aidin Custovic said.
There are also a lot of goals set by the boys this season, especially since Niles West switched conferences this year from South Central Suburban League [CSL] to CSL North. The new conference poses less of a challenge for the team.
“Since we got moved to a lower conference, we could have a way better record than last year, so one of my expectations would be getting 10-0. Another expectation for the team is winning the Thanksgiving and Christmas tournaments,” senior Davee Flowers said.
The Thanksgiving tournament starts November 20th till the 24th. West will be playing Payton, St. Pats and Union Christian Academy. Those three games are guaranteed for the tournament, depending how they do will determine if they will move on to a 4th game. The boys look to succeed and win the whole tournament this year, and for the Christmas tournament, the Wolves look to repeat as champs, which is held December 26-29.
Everyone on the team is willing to give it all, and as the varsity team is made up of mostly juniors, they are being looked to take initiative.
“The juniors will step up, we got some great young guys who are ready to play with a ton of talent,” said senior Auston Ryan.
The boys are motivated to compete and win this year, especially with moving down a conference, the team is in a good position to win the conference championship this year and be able to compete this year for a regional conference. Good luck to the Wolves this season!
