JV and JVB Basketball Strive For Chemistry On and Off the Court

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Sophomore Paul Podedworny drives to the basket against Warren.

Jaleel Gray, Staff Writer

Lake Forest Academy Junior Varsity and Junior Varsity B basketball teams have started the season with a strong sense of chemistry among the players. This year, JV is consisted of only underclassmen rather than in some years when there were one or two Juniors on the team. The similarities in age and classes helps strengthen the bond between players and develop them which will allow the team to perform better on the court in the future.

“We are very close,”said sophomore Jamari Edwards

Their incredible comeback win against Highland Park showed how strong their relationships are. At the moment, their record is 4-6 with a few games left in the season. The absence of sophomore starter Donte Sibley due to the Inauguration trip may have made a negative impacts in the past two games.

However, Edwards claimed, “Now that Dante is back, we can focus on winning and playing smarter.”

Edwards also claimed that their teams youth affects their gameplay against other teams.

“Many of the teams we play have juniors while we don’t have any. So at times it is unfair but we still try to perform at the best of our ability,” stated Edwards when asked about the difficulties of recent games. The older players are more experienced and sometimes taller than several players on the JV team thus making it hard to play against them.

JVB is also strongly connected, mainly because of the large numbers of seniors on the team. The team has 7 seniors, while also having several underclassmen. Senior Nevzat Gedikoglu said, “The team chemistry is great since everyone in the team knows another. Since majority of the playing time is given to the seniors who usually hang out together off the court we have a great connection on the court.”

These relationships are very beneficial, allowing them to enjoy playing while being competitive which is an important aspect in sports. Their performance is similar to JV with a 5-7 record.

There were different reasons for interest as Gedikoglu said, “We have around 15 players some of which are only doing this for the sports credit such as Dan Woo while others like Blake Cedergren dedicates majority of his day to JVB.” Although the players are motivated differently to play for the team, they all strive to perform and are dedicated to the program.