As the Calendar flips to 2024, the Gobblers Basketball Teams hit their stride
Vince Guaraldi’s piano is in the air everywhere you go, the meal of toast, jelly beans, popcorn and pretzels has been eaten amongst the best of friends and the weather (for the most part), is very very chilly. That can only mean one thing…. We’ve made it through the first chunk of the basketball season and it’s time for our 2023-24 Broadway Basketball preview through the first ten-ish games of the season!
Starting with the girls.
Through our first eight games, we stand at 4-4 after a gauntlet of a five-game road streak of games that we finished up in Bridgewater, with a tough four point, 40-36, loss to the Knights. It’s been a ton of fun this season through the first couple months. We’ve steadily improved in every aspect of the game thus far after a couple months of play. We’ve played some opponents over the mountains in Page Co. and Luray, splitting with both the Panthers and Bulldogs. We’ve picked up a couple of wins over Fort Defiance and a win over Rockbridge to make up our four wins to date.
We played Spotswood in Penn Laird to a nail-biting finish earlier this month. We made what we thought was a three to tie the game in the final seconds which would’ve taken us to overtime. At first we thought the three was good, then out of the corner of my eye, the play was reviewed and called a two pointer due to the shooter’s foot being on the line.
It’s a heartbreaking way to lose however, I include this here because it’s a perfect example that basketball is a game of inches. We played a really good Spotswood team on their home floor and almost walked out with a win. I’m super proud of how far the kids have come and I cannot wait to see them compete for the rest of the season.
Onto the boys.
Through nine games, the boys have an impressive record of 7-2! In my season preview as customary for every other preseason story I’ve ever written, I predicted that the boys team would be in good shape despite graduating a lot of talent due to not only their returning talent on the court, but also their returning talent on the sideline. Coach Walton and Coach Jameson are two of the greatest coaches I’ve ever had the honor to be around throughout my career at BHS as a student and coach.
The boys team plays a selfless style of play that doesn’t care who gets the headline. And I feel as if that’s the biggest reason why the boys are playing so well so far. They’re getting contributions from up and down the roster which has made for an unpredictable style of play that leans on a number of different folks at any given time. Which, as a coach, is the hardest thing to gameplan for, when you have to keep multiple names in mind when evaluating a team.
The highlight of a game so far for me this year has to be the 100-scoring output against Fort Defiance. And yes, Fort does run a run and gun style of play which produces a high volume of threes for both teams, however, any time you put up a hundred points, you know it’s been a good night. Fort’s head coach Mike Gale used to be the head coach of the school’s girls’ basketball team, so I’ve experienced this style of play firsthand over the years. I left each matchup against the team feeling like I had played in the game myself.
Overall, it’s been a great start to the season for each program. It’s been great to have gotten to see all of the fans at the games. We thank you for your continued support, as we love what we do because of our great community. Hope to see you all at some games in the future and go Gobblers!
