WMS Boys Basketball just finished the regular season going 6-2 finishing in 2nd place with a big playoff game coming up against the 3 seed, Avenel, on January 8th at Woodbridge High School. It should be an intense matchup as both teams are 1-1 against each other this year. WMS is undefeated at home, but lost to Colonia and Avenel on the road.
8th grader Gavin Gary explained his favorite part of the sesaon, “My favorite part of the season so far is morning practices because it wakes me up.” The team’s leading scorer also explained how he would come back from a deficit, “If we were down at halftime I would look for the people I can trust to help win the game.”
7th grader Zaire West discussed being one of the only 7th graders on the team saying, “I feel confident being only one of two 7th graders on the team.”. He also said, “He feels no pressure going into the games.”
We asked 8th grader Jack Koby what his mindset is going into every game and he said, “My mindset going into the games is to play hard and contribute to the team”. Koby looks for revenge against the Wildcats from last year.
We asked 8th grader, Dillion Diaz, how he deals with pressure and he said, “He deals with pressure by staying calm and remembering what I trained for.” Diaz missed the first two games due to a sickness in his lungs. Then bounced back the next 6 and joined many of his teammates in scoring 100 points to lead the team to a playoff spot
Second year sensation, Coach Salinas, looks to get revenge against the Wildcats who knocked his squad out of the playoffs in heartbreaking fashion last year on their home turf. Salinas said, “ I’m very confident. I think we have the best team and I think we have the best chemistry. I think the student athletes on the basketball team have put in a great effort”.
We asked coach Salines how he calms his guys down and he said, “I calm my guys down by always talking about keeping our emotions in check, we don’t want to downplay our opponent, we also don’t want to overhype ourselves. My message has always been to keep consistent competitiveness whether it is offensive or defensive. We make sure we compete at the highest level. We also respect the process of competing against other teams so the competitiveness level always stays the same.”
After a great week of practice the Warrior boys are ready for the big game on monday night. Coach Salinas said he is very confident for the game and he believes that his squad is nothing but ready.
The 2nd year coach shows his dedication to his squad by coming to work just for practice instead of taking the day off. Salinas’ car had an issue and had to be brought to the shop so he took the train to work just to be with his guys.
