The 8th grade boys basketball team is preparing for the biggest tournament of their Bobcat career.

The Padre Serra Basketball Tournament is an end of the year basketball tournament that all Catholic schools can participate in. The Padre is a one week tournament at the end of the season. In order for a team to participate in the Padre,  they must do well enough in season play to be invited to the tournament.

There are many things that motivate these players, and they all want to play their best basketball. Noel claims, “I am motivated to represent my school.” He explained that he pushes himself and his teammates to work hard because he takes pride in representing St. Robert School. They all want to do well in the upcoming Padre, so they are all giving their best effort in and out of practice.

There are many things that can keep the boys from achieving their goal, such as not finding a way to balance school work and basketball. Sean, another player on the team says, “I tell them to do their homework, otherwise they won’t be able to play in the games.” At St. Robert School, there is a strong policy that if a player doesn’t get his assignments done, he may not be able to play in the current sports games. The team has not had a lot of trouble with this rule in the past, and they are hoping they won’t have trouble with it in the future.

The eighth grade boy’s basketball team is feeling confident about qualifying for the Padre, but there are some things they need to work on such as perimeter shooting. Brian Timmis, coach of the eighth grade boys basketball team says, “Our perimeter shooting is not as strong as we would like it to be.” The boys are not the biggest team, and they do come up against some big teams. When they can’t get points in the paint, their only other way of scoring is getting to the line or getting outside perimeter shots. If they can’t shoot from the outside, it is going to be very hard to score against some big team they will play in the Padre.

We are all hoping the boy of the eighth grade basketball team can finish strong this season by achieving there goal to do well in the Padre. If they work hard in practice, try their hardest in school, and stay motivated to achieve their goal, they will succeed.