Clarke Central High School senior Jaiquez Smith (left) defends a player at the Johnson High School game in the New Gym on Jan. 18. Smith has played basketball for CCHS for four years and has developed two goals for his athletic career. “The goals are set when I first started varsity (were to score) 1,000 points and making it to another Final Four. (Right now I have) 767, so another 200 plus to go,” Smith said. Photo by Luna Reichert
The Clarke Central High School boys basketball team has begun practicing for their 2019-20 schedule and hope to take on the season as a unified group.
As winter approaches, the Clarke Central High School boys basketball team has started preparing for their upcoming games of the 2019-20 season.
According to CCHS head boys basketball coach Andre McIntyre, CCHS will be hosting the annual Andy Landers Thanksgiving Classic, a varsity tournament, on Nov. 25-26.
“(We prepare for these games) every day by just trying to get better, working hard (and) trying to work on our weaknesses to make them our strengths, and you know, that’s all we can do until game time,” McIntyre said.
The boys varsity basketball team schedule is featured above. Photo courtesy fair use of CCHS Athletics
As other sports seasons conclude, McIntyre hopes to work on uniting the team.
“(Our weakness) right now is just coming together. We’re short (of players), because of some of our players are still playing football, so we’re just trying to get this group together with some of the younger players (and) trying to bring some of the younger players up to compete at the varsity level,” McIntyre said.
CCHS senior Jaiquez Smith has been a varsity starter for three years and believes the team can thrive by improving the dynamic.
“I felt like last year, not to knock our team, but there were more players being selfish– Thinking about themselves, trying to score themselves,” Smith said. “So I try to preach team teamwork. You can’t win without a team, you need a team to win. One player don’t win a game, it’s all of us.”
McIntyre looks forward to working with the 2019-20 teams, both JV and varsity and due to their experience, has set goals he deems to be realistic.
“Last year, we made it to the state playoffs. This year, we want to take it several steps further. Our goal is always to win a state championship, and it’s a realistic goal for this group here,” McIntyre said. “We have a lot of returning players. We got a lot of kids who played on varsity basketball. We have three of our players that played on the Final 14 two years ago. So we have a lot of experience, so we’re definitely trying.”
