Daniel Herzog
As the boys’ basketball season gets into full swing, I was able to catch up with some players on our Maroons teams, Luke Swanson and Axel Baldwin, and the head Coach, Coach Leconte Nix.
When asked what has happened thus far, freshman Luke Swanson told me that “it’s been alright thus far, but we had a few players out with COVID-19, and we struggled during that time, but we have been able to come back to full strength since then”.
Sophomore Axel Baldwin mentioned that, “we haven’t had too much success, thus far, but we’re getting better as a team”.
Head Coach Leconte Nix said “having the outbreak at the very beginning of the season was rough, but we’re getting better week by week”.
The team had an COVID-19 outbreak in late November and early December, and my next question was how did they bounce back from that.
Swanson told me that “we’ve come back pretty well, since everyone has been back we are 2-2”.
Baldwin mentioned that they “were short-handed for a few weeks, and that prevented [them] from being able to grow as a team, but since, we’ve been at full strength, we have improved our chemistry”.
Coach Nix stated “we’ve cut down on turnovers, growing a lot, playing a lot better as a team, the biggest thing is that everybody is here”.
When asked what the team's biggest strength is, Swanson immediately mentioned that “when we are at full strength, we have great depth as a team. We have a lot of good players”.
Baldwin stated that “working together, I think we can definitely still improve on that, but right now we’re cool with each other and we work together well”.
Coach Nix explained that they were really good at “just playing hard. They play really hard and they play for each other”.
My next question was about what aspect the team had improved on the most this year.
Swanson told me that “our coach, Coach Keaton has preached on good defense. We have played a lot better defense as the season has gone on”.
Baldwin mentioned that they had improved on their “defensive ability. I think we’ve gotten a lot better as we’ve gotten more in shape”.
Coach Nix stated that the team had really gotten better at “valuing the ball. We’ve done a lot better at taking care of the basketball, not turning it over as much”.
My final question was what they were most looking forward to as the season progressed.
Swanson explained that he just wanted to “keep winning and keep improving.”
Baldwin immediately had a smile creep across his face as he said, “winning games”.
Coach Nix said he was looking forward to the “growth of our team, seeing us come together more, to seeing what these next couple weeks have in store for us.”
This basketball season has been different from past years, for obvious reasons, but the team was able to improve on the struggles they had at the beginning of the season. Good luck the rest of the way Maroons!