By 7 pm on a given school night, most students at Friends Select are home, working, eating, resting, and preparing for the next day of school; for the members of the Varsity Basketball Team, even with months until their first Friends League game, practices at school are still going strong in the FSS gym.
Last season, the Boys Varsity Basketball Team made it back to the Friends League Semi-Final. They fell to a strong Academy of the New Church team, but they proved to the Friends League what they themselves already knew: their steady progress was paying off.
“Our team had an amazing season, beating teams that people wouldn’t have expected us to compete with and we saw a clear vision of the [Friends League] championship,” said Scott Aaronson ‘24. “Although at the end of our season there was a lot of disappointment, the grittiness of our team took that loss and used it as motivation to beat those teams we came short to. Right away Percell and Bill looked into players that can fill the spots that we lost, and they did.”
Players are excited about what new recruits have to offer. “The new additions have honestly been really great for the team,” says Tiko Morris-Louis ‘24, another senior on the team. “They have adjusted well and help maintain the very high levels of tenacity and passion. I’m excited to see how they perform this season and how they adjust next year.”
These new recruits also add to what Percell Coles, Head Coach, has described as the team’s biggest strength: “The team has a lot of depth. We have an eight man rotation with the ability to play fast or slow if necessary.”
In the 2019-20 season, FSS Basketball finished seventh in the Friends League. By 2021-22 it was 5th. Last year it was 4th. The team has been making steady progress toward their goal of winning the Friends League Championship and their continued drive during the offseason into the late evening hours shows how committed they are to getting there. Their first Friends League game is on December 12th.
