By: Jyllian Scott
Laramie boys’ basketball season is coming up and the team is extremely excited to play.
Sophomore Neil Summers is excited for the upcoming basketball season.
The team is hoping to make it to the state tournament this year after having a challenging time at regionals last year.
“As a team we had a rough time at regionals last year. So, this year we are really striving to make it to state and compete well against the other teams,” Summers said.
The team has a good chance of making it to state if they work hard and play together as a team.
“Being on the East side of the state makes it tough with having the three Cheyenne teams in our region but we are very excited to compete with them and all play together,” Summers said.
The last time Laramie boys’ basketball team won state was 1985, it would be amazing if they could pull through and win this year.
“We are a very talented team and I think we have a good chance to put together a run beyond regionals and make it to state and play very well against some teams that have been our biggest rivals,” Summers said.
The season is right around the corner, the first practice is November 21st.
The team got a new coach this year after the old coach transferred to a different school.
The new coach is Drew Evans, he was the Junior Varsity coach last year, his team was highly successful.
“Coach Evans was the Junior Varsity coach last year and he really helped the team, I was able to play some games on his team as well, I really enjoyed the way he values defense and hard-nose basketball,” Summers said.
“Coach Evans has also made some changes in our offense which has been helpful, but the biggest change he has made is a new position-less game,” Summers said.
The team has been working hard in the off-season during open gyms and going to summer camps.
Open gyms are good opportunities for the team and the coaches to get a bigger picture of what the season is going to look like.
“The summer camps were a lot of fun and because of them I feel like our team has grown closer, at one of the camps we played volleyball during one of our breaks and it was a lot of fun,” Summers said.
The LHS basketball team has also participated in a fall travel league at Power to play in Windsor Colorado.
The team goes down around once a week to participate in these tournaments, they play lots of Colorado teams in preparation for the high school season.
Summers’s goal is to be a good leader on the team, play hard and do his part to make it to state.
The team is overly excited to play, and they cannot wait to get back on the court and work extremely hard.