Westtown Basketball: Off the Court

As winter co-curriculars are starting to initiate, the basketball season this year is striking interest in many students. Lots of people (myself included) enjoy watching and playing the sport, whether it’s just shooting around with friends, or attending the packed and thrilling home games. Some people may have even heard of or attended Westtown due to the large selection of sports the school offers, as well as the skilled teams it has to offer. I asked different players on all teams how they feel about the season, and their interactions with the team as a whole.

(These interviews were taken in early December)

Starting with the JVC team, shooting guard and small forward Charlie Saenger doesn’t seem to have very high hopes for his team. He claims to get along with teammates, but he states that his team is “kind of a mess.” During this time, the JVC team had won two games and lost one. 

For the JV boys team, center Hussein Koureissi has the opposite mindset, seeming rather optimistic. He claims that the position itself is challenging: “I’m the only freshman on the team, so I kind of have to prove myself.” He also says that the relationship he has with his team is good: “We work as a team, and any time we make a mistake we come together to talk it over.” That same day, he was also planning to do a non-mandatory practice session with his team. It can be concluded from this that there are high hopes for the JV boys team.

As for the JV girls team, it seems like there is a similar experience within the team. The small forward Tara Kumar says that she gets along with her teammates. “I really like my team this year. [There are] a lot of freshmen.” The surplus amount of freshmen could possibly mean that many new high school girls are starting to branch out into sports,  if they haven’t done so before. Point guard Alana Thomforde shares a similar mindset. “I really like my teammates, we always joke around at practice. I have very high hopes.”

The varsity teams have both also reported good news and display good sportsmanship upon each other. The small forward, Malik Rasul, “I think it’s looking very good for us. We had a good start.” During this time, the varsity team had won 3 home games, but had lost their first away game. Jayden Forsythe, the shooting guard, even described his relationship with his team as that of a family: “We’re all like brothers.”

Finally, girls varsity team member Vianna K Watson claims to like playing basketball as a guard a lot. “I get along with everyone pretty good, a lot better than last year.” According to her, they had some away games and some home games at the time that mostly went well, and she has high hopes for the rest of the season.