Northwest’s annual Late Night at the Pound occurred Wednesday, Nov. 29. It served as a first look into winter sports. The boys’ and girls’ basketball teams played in a jamboree. The Wrestling team was also introduced.
This year the girls’ basketball team has a new head coach, Chayla Cheadle. She previously coached at Olathe North High School.
“I thought the girls really had a great opportunity to come out and work on the things that we’ve been working on in practice and put [them] in game situations,” Cheadle said. “I think we have a lot of things that we can learn from and work on for our first game next week.”
Cheadle said she thought the team did well considering it’s their first time back with a new coaching staff and system and that they are still learning how to put everything into action in game situations.
Unlike last year, both the girls’ and boys’ basketball teams played in a jamboree against other schools rather than scrimaging each other. Boys basketball head coach Aaron Ihm was excited about the change and for the upcoming season.
“To be able to go and play against other teams that are at the same point [in] their season as us shows [us] some of the things that maybe [we] didn’t get to see because it’s varsity on varsity,” Ihm said.
Senior Josie Grosdidier explained she is hoping to build off of those games and has goals to be a leader and win state this season.
“I think it’s good to get that foundation and it gives us something to focus on coming into practice. It gives us a new mindset,” Grosdidier said. “I just think it gives us that extra motivation of knowing we went one and one to step it up and win the games coming up on Monday.”
Joey Matteoni, a senior on the boy’s basketball team, said the team did better than he thought. He said the team communicated well, had good passes and overall played well together. He explained that one thing he wants to improve on during the season is defense.
“I think we need a player to step up on defense. We need someone to be the dog on defense, who can really guard the best player and take all the beats on defense,” Mattenoi said.
Furthermore, Cheadle said she is looking to learn and grow from the games last night; one of those things being defense. She said the scrimmage helped her know what they needed to improve on.
“I think our defense definitely has to improve. I want to [specifically highlight] Ella Burvee for her defense tonight, it was tremendous. She had a lot of deflections, she was on the floor, and I think if we can get everybody to match her energy on the defensive end we’ll be really good,” Cheadle said
Cheadle said her goal for this season is to have a winning record, go to state and push the girls to compete every day.
“I want to go really far and hopefully win a state title. I think we have a lot of talent this year and if we put it all together and play as a team, I think we can go really far,” Grosdidier said. “I just want to continue to grow as a team and build together so we can get a good solid foundation.”
Senior Thomas Mitchell said he thought the team played well and the upperclassman tried to play and get used to each other since they have younger guys on the team. Mitchell said this is his first year being on varsity and he’s hoping to be able to play on senior night and get a little playing time, as well as help the team out.
“I want to get a ring, I want to play my senior night, walk out with my parents. That’s kind of what I want to do going into my last season of playing sports,” Mitchell said.
Along with Mitchell, Ihm hopes to make it to the championship this season. He said he plans on maximizing his player’s potential.
“I just want to see the growth of our guys. I think that’s why I enjoy teaching and coaching,” Ihm said. “You want to see the growth [and] how tight they can get as a collective group and that’s what I’m looking forward to the most.”
