Bruins are hoping to box-out all the competition this season.

Players on the Varsity Boys Basketball team said they are ready and excited for the upcoming season. Brekyn Vasquez, a Varsity player and sophomore, made predictions about the team’s success.

“I think it’ll be good,” he said. “I mean we have a new coaching staff because last year our coach left, so it’s a new start, so I think we’ll do alright.”

With the new coaching staff, players will need to adjust. Clay Corippo, a senior on the Varsity team, agrees with Vasquez.

“I think we’ll do better than last year,” he said. “Things are looking pretty good and we’re just getting the football players from the football season, so things are looking pretty good.”

With Football coming to a close, the Boys Basketball team benefits from the increase of players. Brad Smith, a sophomore on the Varsity team, reflected on how the team’s last season went.

“It’s gonna go well; we didn’t do too hot on the first couple of games, but on our last tournament we went 2 – 1,” Smith said. “I think the season is looking pretty good. We just gained our Football players back, so that’s helping a lot.”

Corippo explained how the team will prepare for the upcoming season.

“We are practicing everyday and we’ve been playing in a lot of tournaments against some good schools and stuff,” he said. “We’ve got a good preseason schedule and stuff laid out.”

Smith agreed with that game plan.

“Just practicing hard,” he said. “(We’ll be) running our plays and remembering them.”

Vasquez explained why he he’s excited for the season ahead.

“Yeah, I mean, we’ve got a lot of returning players and some new guys,” he said. “I was on Varsity last year so yeah, I think it will be good.”

Corippo shared the same amount of enthusiasm as Vasquez.

“Yeah, I’m excited,” Vasquez said. “Basketball is a lot of fun. Just from the road trips all the way to the games. Some of the games get really intense and that’s fun.”

Varsity Basketball Coach Jeff Bickmore explained how he hopes this year’s season will go for Bear River.

“I’m hoping that a lot of our kids skills get better and that we find other ways for a lot of our players to just contribute to the team,” he said. “… Maybe if they don’t think they’re a good shooter, that they can improve their shot and score more points or if they think they’re not as good a defender, maybe that they can improve to be, you know, get them to be all around good players.”