Basketball

Basketball Season is very important in our community. We have had many different stars come through this school. Our community is involved in supporting our students every year. The season is ongoing!

I spoke to our boys' team superstar basketball players Jake Wilkins and LJ LaFaver. I asked them both in this interview first their thoughts on their Senior season and both players responded, “We have been struggling and must perform together as a team.” I then asked them what improvements they needed to make and Jake said, “We need to be better defensively”, and LJ said boldly “I need to shoot more.” I then asked them what the outlook is on the upcoming Wampus Cat classic and Jake replied with, “Idabel winning but lookout for Ardmore”,  LJ says the Wampus Cats are going to win it!  Closing out the interview I asked who their favorite teammates were and Jake said, “Joseph Oliver Lee Lafaver” and LJ's response was,  “Probably Roper Rector.”

I had the opportunity to speak with Coach Ackerman and ask him a few great  questions about this season.  I began with asking about challenges he has faced and he said, "Learning a new system is always challenging, it takes time and reps to be able to get everyone to be able to play without having to think.” I discussed with him the Wampus Cat Classic and the outlook of it and he replied, “Its an extremely tough tournament with a bunch of tradition- filled top tier teams. When asksed about improvements that the team needs to make, Ackerman responded, “Team chemistry on the floor, while we have excellent team chemistry off the floor we are still learning to play with one another.” The last question I asked was who is your team leader or leaders you can count on on and off the court and he said, “As an individual I can’t think of one kid that just stands out as a leader and every player has had their moments of leadership both on and off the floor.”

Our basketball teams are both very well coached. The players work hard and are committed to being excellent. This season has had some bumps in the road, but our teams have both responded positively. I look forward to seeing our program the rest of this season!