The boys’ basketball season is finally making its return at University Academy.
The head coach is Lower School P.E. teacher Coach Anthony Rashid. Being a coach means being a leader, which comes with a lot of responsibilities, especially with young boys who often seek leadership in educators.
But coaches aren’t the only leaders on a sports team. Every team also needs players who are leaders. Coach Rashid said he is expecting junior Teron Trice and sophomores Ta’Juan Cann and DeAnthony Hicks to step up as leaders this year, just to name a few.
Cann is committed to helping his team find success.
“I’m going to help my teammates get better so we can be on the same page and put the ball in the hoop.”
The team will hopefully work on building relationships with each other while also having great communication with the coach.
One big challenge while playing sports is building up the endurance and mental capacity to handle the long season. Also, student athletes have to stay on top of school work while still maintaining their dedication to the sport.
“Another challenge is to get everyone to buy in early instead of waiting until the end of the year to make a run,” Coach Rashid said.
He is focused on stacking wins. With the team winning four games in his first year as coach, then nine games last year, he is hoping to increase the number of wins again this year.
One way to work toward this goal is for players to be in good shape.
“Teams that are in shape are teams that can hold teams a certain amount of points,” Coach Rashid said, adding that conditioning and defense will be points of focus for the Gryphons.
Cann has some individual goals he’s working toward this season, but he knows that everything starts with his team’s success. He said he hopes that “we as a team will win the district championship, and I believe we could win, we just have to play together.”
The boys basketball team’s first game of the season was Nov. 21 at Northeast High School at 7 p.m. Their first home game will be on Dec. 8 against Schlagle High School at 6 p.m.
There will be more big games throughout the season. Cann mentioned that he has his eyes on a home game on Jan. 22 against Ewing Marion Kauffman School and an away game on Feb. 6 at Barstow High School. So make sure to mark those games in your calendars.
Come out and support, Gryphon fans.
