As some of you know, the seventh grade boys basketball tryouts were on Thursday, November 7th and Saturday, November 9th.  That’s when this season officially started. Before and after the first tryout, the boys were all very pumped about this year’s season.  With some new faces, Ben Schnese, Jack Koshkin and Jack Madell, and some seasoned players like Bennett Coffou and Aaron Eimers, this year’s teams looked to be tournament bound.  After the second tryout of a two hour duration, the boys were sweat-glazed, tired and more excited than ever.  One by one they were called into the locker room to find out which team they were on and why.  Everyone seemed happy with their placement although I’m sure they all had some hope of making A-team in them.  The roster are as follows:

A-team: Bennett Coffou, Harrison Draver, Aaron Eimers, Elliot Kaftan, Paul Laliberte, Jack Madell, Ryan Mitchell, Ben Morrissey

B-team: Roberto Barron, Joe Callahan, Woody Fox, Aidan Grogan, Jack Hietpas, Jack Koshkin, Will Lewein, Ike Ognar, Ben Schnese

Elliot and Ben on the A-team go to different schools as the rest of the team because they go to SIS school in Milwaukee.  The same goes for Ike and Joe on the B-team.  SIS stands for Shorewood Intermediate School and as you may have guessed, it’s in Shorewood.  The A-team is coached by Mr. and Mrs. Eimers and the B-team is coached by Mr. Donaldson.  Both teams play in the North Shore Catholic League but the A-team and the B-team are both in the A-league due to there not being enough B-teams to have a separate league.  So far the A-team is off to a great start after their first games with a record of 2-0 and even though the B-team looked a bit rusty after their first practice, quoting Coach Donaldson, they are playing like: “We are the second A-team.  There is no more B-team talk.  OK?” They have a record of 0-2.  I interviewed seventh grade player Harrison who is on the A-team.  When asked what he thought about his season so far and what he thought of his team he replied,

“I think we’re doing pretty good.  We all came together as a team and so we have to work together as a team.”

Overall, how do you think your practices paid off in the first game?

“I think they played off really well and our man-to-man defense was really good.”

In the long run, how do you think you’ll do?

“I think we’ll do well and I hope we are .500 or better.”

The A-team’s first game was “awesome” according to Harrison, who had no comments about his personal season so far.  They won by a score of 44-21.  The B-team’s first game didn’t go so well, they lost 37-5 but they are confident that they can do much better.  The second game, which was on Sunday at Saint Monica’s, had them playing against St. Eugene.  They lost 27-4 on Sunday, December 15th, but played much much harder and better.  That same Sunday the A-team won by a score of 31-6.

The B-team is running a motion offense where the main idea is to always, no matter what, be moving and they, for now, are playing a 1-3-1 defense where the point guard is in the front, three of the other players are lined up in the middle and one of the wings plays by the hoop.  As a player on the team myself, to sum up our team, I would say we are the team who starts low and rises to the top super fast.

The A-team is going with about 10 different offenses with a 1-3-1 and man-to-man defense.

Check out the sports calendar on the newspaper to see when your Bobcats are playing here next and where else you can see them.  Go Bobcats!