Heading into his 10th season at Greenhill, Varsity Boys Basketball Head Coach Joey Sims has high expectations for a young team with the potential to succeed. Although there may be some new faces on the court for the Hornets this season, Sims says his goals remain the same.
This year, the team will have a lone senior on the roster. Despite the challenge having a young roster can pose, Sims believes the team has what it takes to succeed this year.
Along with senior Anwar Battikhi, the team is captained by junior Dillon Watt and sophomore Jaxson Thompson.
“Jaxson, Dillon, and Anwar have stepped into the role [of leadership] and filled It well,” Sims said.
The new role is destined to be a challenge for all three captains, but have the important lessons past captains have taught them to assist them in this task.
“Luke Brodsky ‘23 and Zac Slotnik ‘23 taught me that a big part of being a leader is bringing energy to practice and holding your teammates accountable for everything because small problems can become big problems against good teams,” Thompson said.
Maintaining traditions from past years, the team participated in the Berkner Shootout as a preseason tournament. Although challenged by much larger schools, the Hornets played to a 2-1 record in scrimmages.
“Our takeaway from the Berkner shootout is that we will be a great team when we figure out how to play better together,” Thompson said.
Additionally, Thompson mentioned how late mistakes in the closing minutes stopped the team from taking a victory over Hebron High School.
The team faced much larger schools, including North Garland and Lewisville with wins, but fell to Hebron in the end.
“Playing bigger schools doesn’t bother us as our non-conference schedule is mainly built around playing larger public schools,” Sims said.
As with the start of every season, Sims sets goals for his team which he works to achieve throughout the entire course of the season. Specifically for this year, Sims’ goals pertain to how to reach success even with a team smaller in size compared to most Southwest Preparatory Conference teams.
To combat this, Sims has been focusing on playing higher-paced basketball to turn a disadvantage into an advantage for the team. Sims hopes to increase pressing on defense and score 80 points a game this year.
“We’re really trying to get the kids playing faster,” Sims said.
Along with the goal of improving the pace of the game, Sims has an end goal for his team this year.
“[As] always our goal is to win [the] SPC [championships],” Sims said.
The three captains echo Sims’ statement.
“Our team is a lot better than last year, so we feel like we have a good chance to do something special,” Thompson said.
