As the new year settles in, the City of Rockville Recreational Basketball League is back and a new team has joined.
Junior Shreyas Ganeshan and his friends started a team this season and their name is the Goon Squad. “I specifically joined as I wanted to get back into playing basketball,” Ganeshan said.
As a new team, the Goon Squad’s coach, John Grainger, emphasizes that they spend most of their time in practice doing 5v5s in order to familiarize the players with the sport. In the team’s opinion their coach’s best qualities are “his leadership and knowledge of the game,” Ganeshan said.
Ganeshan has noticed that his team struggles to avoid fouling in the heat of the moment. “We plan to improve on this by going over the rules and realizing what is a foul,” he said.
Despite their inexperience, Ganeshan is optimistic they can overcome this hurdle and still shoots for a winning record. “Our team’s strength is definitely our ability to work as a team. We plan to maintain this strength by continuing to push each other at practice,” Ganeshan said.
Senior Ricky Gomez is partaking in his first season with the Ohio Skibidis who are returning to the league this winter. “I joined the team because I wanted to try a new sport and compete alongside my close friends,” Gomez said.
Coach Kayvan Fouladi is returning to lead the Ohio Skibidis this season. “Coach Kayvan’s best qualities are his patience with all the guys on the team and his humbleness. He tries his best to get everyone on the team some minutes of playing time and is very open to suggestions from others. He also treats all of us with respect and equality,” Gomez said.
Despite their time in the league, the Ohio Skibidis still struggle in certain areas, which their players feel may be holding them back. Gomez believes that the team’s issue lies within the players’ inability to score and their game intelligence. “We plan to try new play styles and have people play different positions to narrow down how we can get to the basket quicker. We will also work on our game awareness by playing scrimmages and acting like we are actually in a real game,” Gomez said.
Being on a 12-player roster, Gomez said his team is at an advantage compared to other teams. “I would say our team’s biggest strength is our depth. We have a lot of people on the team, which means we can have a constant rotation of players to give some of the guys some rest. We will maintain this by having a set rotation during a game and sticking to it,” Gomez said.
Senior Luke Brunner is a returning player on the Blue Crabs. He joined the team because “all of [his] friends from elementary school are on the team.”
Their coach, Doug Grey, is also returning to the team this season and Brunner praises him for his level of experience. “He played basketball in college so he knows a lot about the sport,” Brunner said.
Brunner said that his team’s strength lies in their strong defensive capabilities and fast breaks. “Our goal is to win the championship this season because we’ve worked really hard and we’ve been playing basketball together for a long time,” Brunner said.
Sophomore Noah Edlavitch plays on the Greasy Grove Gyatt Gobblers and has been on the team since he was in fourth grade. “I joined because a lot of my friends were on it,” Edlavitch said.
His coach Eric Miller, said that the team focuses on scrimmaging in order to build chemistry at practice. This season Edlavitch hopes that the team refines its ability to properly manage games. “I feel that sometimes we perform poorly under pressure and lose track of the pace of the game,” Edlavitch said.
Edlavitch has his eyes on the prize this season. “Our goal is to make it to the finals, if not win. We have never been that close,” Edlavitch said.
