After placing fifth out of seven schools in the upper level of the DeAnza League last year, boys basketball hopes to improve their previous 4-8 record and land in the upper half of the league this year. Head coach Trevor Naas, now in his second year, believes that this year, the team’s chemistry will help them reach their full potential.

With such a strong team bond, the team believes that they could potentially reach league championships or even CCS. Year-round training, team bonding events, and a three-day summer basketball camp at UC Santa Barbara have all contributed to this strong team bond, which is crucial to success on the courts and beyond.

“We got them together off of the basketball court,” Naas said. “[That’s when] you start to see some of their bond and connection develop and deepen a little bit. Anytime you get them together away from the basketball court it gets really good for their chemistry.”

With eight senior players — more than half the team — gone, this year’s seniors are stepping up to take their place, and chemistry will be crucial. The team will have a strong core with years of experience playing with each other; five out of the six seniors have been on varsity since sophomore year.

“We’ve been playing a lot together,” last year’s co-captain senior Matt Eberle said. “The culmination of all our playing together comes into this year and now we’re ready to lead the team and win.”

Naas, for his part, has become more comfortable with his players and gained insight into improvements the team can make this season.

“On the court, ball security would be number one,” Naas said. “Eliminating our turnovers is going to be a huge challenge for us in our league… Last year, that was a major issue for us. This year, I’m hoping that we’re able to turn a corner with that in the way that we commit to preparing for it in practice and the way we value the ball.”

To improve his team’s ball security, Naas plans to implement new drills in practice and review game footage with his players. He will enlist the help of a service called Hudl to pinpoint specific improvements players can make to improve their play on the court. Hudl uses video footage to point out key moments like turnovers and rebounds and create a statistical breakdown of the game.

“From a coaching stance it’s a great teaching tool, because then it’s not just our voice all the time saying this is what we need to do, but now we’re able to see it and learn from it and then go and address it on the court,” Naas said.

Through pushing for team chemistry both on and off the court and focusing on improving their defense, the team has high hopes of achieving their goals of raising their overall record from last year.

“We definitely think we’ll improve from last year… and we’ll have a better record than last year,” Matt said. “We have such a senior core, and we all have goals of CCS… that’ll help us come playoff time when we all just really want to get to that championship game.”