As we are now in the midst of the winter, Hoosier Hysteria has taken over the sports minds of us Indiana citizens. Some teams have shined bright and performed exponentially well, while others have underperformed and not met expectations. Unfortunately, the Kings are on the latter half of this scale. Coming into the new year, the Kings finished 2024 by playing in a Holiday tournament, consisting of four teams (Lewis Cass, Plymouth, Knox, and New Prairie). The Kings placed third of these four teams. Seniors, Bryce Rudd and Kolten Young had a second-place finish in the Three-Point Shootout. After the Kings beat Knox in this tournament, they upped their record to two wins, and seven losses as they rolled into the new year.
With nine games played only in 2024, the Kings have thirteen games left in the 2025 portion of the season until sectionals begin, and they are looking to make what is left of the season count. Head Coach, Eric Branz said this about the Kings’ struggles early on in the season, “I think we all expected to have a couple more wins than we have now, but that goes to show you how difficult and unpredictable winning is. The biggest challenge to start this season was replacing the leadership we lost to graduation. Player-led teams win, and this is something we will need to work on as the season progresses. A focus our coaching staff has for players is controlling what they can control (attitude, effort, and energy). In both wins and losses, we have seen that these three controllables have a huge impact on success.” The Kings do have a veteran team, with five seniors and five juniors, and they do have skill without a doubt. However, sometimes not everything goes in their favor, but the same can be said for the other team. Controlling what you can control has been a big factor in game performances though, and this shows that not everything requires skills, but other intangibles. All these different traits that do not correlate with basketball skills can make or break a team. However, our Kings’ has been slightly broken due to this, but is in a healing process for the new year. Maintaining a positive outlook for the season will play a key role in the team’s healing process, as attitude is an aspect you can control. Coach Branz had to say this about the team’s positive outlook, “It is difficult to stay positive, but attitude is a choice. Our players are not treated any differently because of a win or loss. The goal is to develop better relationships in order to build trust, that is where our joy is. We have to develop daily habits that lead to winning. That requires discipline and a willingness to surrender yourself to your team in order to serve them. Winning is a process and steps cannot be skipped. We have to learn our lessons in order to continue to grow both on and off the court.” With that being said, winning cannot be a main goal itself without other goals to be achieved before this. Proving this, many cannot win and have not won until they achieve the other smaller intangible goals. Achieving these can lead to the end goal of winning games and competitions.
Apart from the season’s status, this is the last season for seniors to play school basketball. Basketball for this class of seniors began in first grade playing together in the Leap of Faith league at Walton Christian Church. In the blink of an eye, the seniors are halfway done with their senior year. Many great memories have been made, and there have been moments of struggle and shine. When asked about his favorite memories made along his way, senior, Bryce Rudd had this to say, “I would say my favorite memory was going to Super Hoops basketball camp in the summer. At camp, you get to hang out with the team and play a lot of basketball games. It is a great way to prepare for the season and bond with your teammates.” Correspondingly, senior Wade Tocco said, “My favorite memory would be sophomore year when we went on the semi-state run. Everything that we did during that time was pretty fun.” However, what time we spent is gone, and it is time to prepare for what is left. Likewise, Tocco said, “I think I’m looking forward to sectional and hope we can win some more games.” Also, Rudd responded, “I would say I am looking forward to sectionals the most. We still have a good amount of games left in the regular season as well that I think will prepare us for the sectional tournament.” As the Kings have started the season off slowly, Tocco expressed some things he wished he would have done differently saying, “I think I would’ve tried to help lead a little better.”
With the new year in swing and students back to school, your Kings are back to ball and the games will continue on Friday, January 10, where the Kings will play Northfield at home. This game will have a 6:15 start time for JV and varsity will follow, and the Kings will follow up by traveling to Manchester on Saturday, January 11, also with a 6:15 start time for JV and varsity to follow.
