After a disappointing season last year going 3-12, the JV boys’ basketball team is looking to make a strong start to the year. The team will have to rebuild this year, losing four out of five starters from last year, with juniors Taj Smith, Isaish Kiuper, Elijah Kiwalabye and sophomore Sammy Alexandre moving up to varsity this year.

The boys will open up against Northeast at 5:30 tonight and will have their home opener against Walter Johnson at 5:30 on Dec. 9.

At the end of last season, head JV Coach Andre Gaines had to step down due to personal reasons. In the off-season, head varsity coach Erick Graves worked with the school and interviewed candidates interested in the job. Coach Dondrell Whitmore was hired and is now head coach for the JV basketball team. The team feels Whitmore is the perfect person for the job to turn around the JV team with professional basketball experience overseas and extensive experience coaching at Blake, Montrose Christian, and even winning a state championship at Sherwood.

Whitmore said he has loved coaching the team so far and has high expectations. “Coaching the JV basketball team has been a dream come true. To be able to coach a great group of athletes has been a lot of fun. My expectations for this year are to develop the kids, have fun and to go undefeated,” Whitmore said.

Tryouts for the team were held on Nov. 15-17 and in total they had around 35 kids tryouts for the team. The tryouts involved different types of drills and scrimmages to test the boys’ basketball skills and knowledge. At the end of the two cuts, the coaches decided to keep 14 players, two being returning players from the team last year and 12 being completely new to the team.

The two returning players are sophomores Jack Sullivan and Shayan Kurup. Sullivan is a 6’0 small forward who started for the team last year and was a big time shot maker. Kurup is a 5’10 point guard and was the backup point guard last year and this year is looking to step into the starting role. “Being a starter this year I hope I can lead our team to a great season and can show the coaches what I can really do,” Kurup said.

On Nov. 21 JV had their first and only scrimmage of the year vs Poolsville at home. The scrimmage was played in a five quarter format where the score reset after each quarter. The Patriots had a strong showing, winning four out of the five quarters and dominating Poolesville for most of the game. Freshman point guard Chase Mitchell and Kurup lead the team, scoring the bulk of their points and adding a couple assists each. After the win the team was happy but knew they had to prepare for better opponents. “We played good today, but if we want to compete with the better teams in the county we have to step it up,” Mitchell said.

The boys will look to ride their momentum from the Poolesville scrimmage into their first game away at Northwest tonight. The boys encourage as many people from the school to come support them at their games this year. “Having fans there makes a big difference because of the energy it brings to your team. We need more fans to come out to the games,” freshman point guard Bryan Ngouzo said.