With the winter sports season underway, the varsity boys’ basketball team has been hard at work during the preseason.

The team attended preseason workouts with coach Todd Seymour three days a week during September and October. With the new regulations for preseason workouts allowing unlimited numbers, the players have been able to build team chemistry before the season officially starts.

The first game this year was Nov. 28 against Millbrook, which was pushed back from last year due to several starters being involved in the football playoffs.  Missing their full complement of players, the boys fell to the Wildcats 40 to 74.

With many new faces on the team and a new conference, the boys are hopeful to take it all the way this year once they are fully staffed.

Seymour has emphasized the importance of team chemistry.

“In the preseason, they really have to learn how to play together. Each team’s chemistry is different, and chemistry is really important in basketball because it is such a free flowing game back and forth,” Seymour said. “If you’re not on the same page as your teammates, we can look really bad as a team, so they have to get that together early. That’s another reason I’m glad we have pretty much a month to prepare for our first game because it takes a while to develop that chemistry.”

That chemistry payed off when the boys defeated D.H. Conley 52 to 39 Dec. 2 and won again Dec. 5 versus East Wake, defeating the Warriors 41 to 38.

Senior Captain and Point Guard Donta Bush enjoys the team’s chemistry on and off the court, and he thinks this year’s new talent will bring the team together.

“I feel like this year’s team is very young, but I think we’re more talented because we know each other. There’s just more new talent, and I think everybody’s going to come together this year. Last year we weren’t together, so I think it’s going to be a good year,” Bush said.

Seymour is determined to improve on the weaknesses last year’s team had.

“I don’t think we were very good defensively last year. We were giving up a lot of easy buckets on the perimeter, and we’ve got to improve on that,” Seymour said. “Our team’s strength has got to improve, as far as physical strength, and we’ve been working on that in the off season. I think some of our JV guys coming up, who are physically stronger guys, will help us defensively in that regard.”