Basketball season has officially ended. That being said, many players are already beginning to look back and reflect. “Beginning of the season, our main goal was to connect as teammates and grow our chemistry,” Angel Iglesias, a senior, said, “I felt we really started picking things up toward the end of the season.”
Some of these players also had personal goals or growth for the season. “It was my first season of basketball, so [my goals were to] get some playing time, work my way up the rotations, and try to play a bigger role on the team,” Iglesias said. Eventually, he was able to gain playing time, play a bigger role, and work his way up to the rotations. “Personally, I feel I did somewhat achieve my goals. Being a starter my first year was great and all.”
However, some say there’s room for personal improvement. “But I feel I could have achieved more, especially seeing my growth toward the end of the season. I think if I were to have joined maybe my sophomore year I could have developed and improved upon the team,” Iglesias said.
As a team, this is what some believe. “Some goals [we had for the team] was making sure we were all capable of playing our spots correctly and knowing what your spot was assigned to do or [understand if] you’re playing your role correctly,” Gael Torres, a freshman, said.
Many believe some of their goals were achieved but others weren’t. “I would like to say no because I feel that coming into the first game everyone felt intimidated and somewhat scared because it was [our] first game. From there on out it was the same thing, we always ended up falling short and it felt like we threw everything we worked on in practice and went out blind when the games started,” Torres said.
Although they could have done better, there are no regrets. “I think we definitely felt we should have done a lot better considering we had many tough losses and mistakes along the way,” Iglesias said, “but the team is young and will grow, and I feel that next season they are [going to] continue to grow and develop with younger players stepping up.”
Progress was one of the main things the coaches and players wanted to see during the season. “Just to see progress to get better, whatever their weaknesses are, to get better,” coach Delgado said. “[Though they] weren’t able to achieve their goals, I was able to see progress in individual players.”
Improvement was a big success individually. “We did get better, but as a team we didn’t. [The progress as a team] was really up and down,” David Aguirre, a junior, said. “I think some of them were [able to achieve the goals], some of them not, a lot of ups and downs of the team,” Nick Placencia, a freshman, said.
All in all, many players say they owe their thank you’s to their coach. “Coach Delgado is an amazing coach and his strategies work well when run correctly. Under his guidance, the team should continue to learn from him and each other, making them a stronger team next season,” Iglesias said. “Coach Kenneth is really cool and works really well with us,” Placencia said.
