After a pre-season filled with countless conditioning drills and exercises, the Parkway West Boys’ Basketball team has started to show some promise, winning two of their first three games.
The Longhorns season started off by a show of their impressive high-powered offense in a 67-70 loss to Parkway North, a game in which junior shooting guard Jake Socha, who was recently named player of the week by stlhighschoolsports.com, put up 26 points.
“I really wouldn’t have been able to score that many points if my teammates didn’t execute the way they did or if my coaches didn’t coach the way they did. They gave me the opportunity,” Socha said.
The team then went on to win its next two games, one of which being on Parkway West’s ‘Neon Night’ against Parkway Central, a game where the gymnasium was filled with students wearing highlighter-colored clothes.
“Everybody was going crazy. It was amazing,” senior Jerrod Williams said.
The Longhorns beat the Colts in a low-scoring defensive game 39-32. Senior Cash McCurdy led the defensive battle for West, recording eight out of the teams 23 rebounds and three out of the four blocks.
“We won’t be overlooked this year. All of the work we put in before this season started has made us legitimate contenders,” McCurdy said.
While the Longhorns do have something to celebrate, there’s still plenty of work to be done and games to be played. “There’s always room for improvement, no matter how well we are playing.” Socha said.