The Freshman Boys Basketball Team slam dunked three wins at their first high school tournament.

On December 1st in the McCrory gym, the Freshman Bruins showed extreme potential with a 68-28 lead against the Mesa Verde Mavericks. It was the first game of the season during their three-day tournament. The team also won their second game against the Ponderosa Bruins, 50-33, on December 2nd, as well as their third game against the Placer Hillman, 49-40, on December 3rd.

Players expressed their mixed emotions before the first game.

“I’m a little nervous,” said Tre Maronic, a freshman.

“I think we’ll be able to hold up to them,” said Caleb Hurst, a freshman. “We’ll see how it goes.”

Others focused on what needed to be done to perform their best as a team.

“We need to win,” said Adam Malik, a freshman. “We need to run our offense. We need to do what the coaches tell us and try our hardest. We practiced, we focused on effort and did what coach told us.”

Prior to the game, Freshmen Coach Joey Jergo was looking forward to seeing his players execute what they learned.

“I’m very excited as far as building relationships [and] building basketball players, not just (being) good at one or two things, but many,” said Coach Jergo. “It’s also important to go full speed against opposing teams.”

Coach Jergo explained what the team did to prepare.

“The kids put in the time and the effort,” he said. “The focus for every practice … is to build skills.”

“Don’t be satisfied with just one skill,” Coach Jergo said. “You can never just be good at one thing and stop there.”

Spectators were pleased with the team’s performance come halftime.

“I’m excited, the boys look great,” said Gregg Pistochini, the Head Coach of the Boys Varsity Basketball Team. “They’re playing hard, but fouling a little too much. I love the way they pass the ball to each other.”

“It’s going really well,” said Toran Maronic, a senior. “We’re getting some good shots.”

Players were pleased with the outcome of their first game, but continue to strive for improvement.

“[We did] good but, we had too many fouls,” said Reid Zolldan, a freshman. “Keep your hands off other players.”

“We played strong,” said Colton Jenkins, a freshman. “We just kept fighting through all the fouls we had. I feel like I played well. I’ve been working on my shot a lot and it payed off.”

Coach Jergo elaborated on the improvement of the team.

“It’s a start,” he said. “We did a lot of things well, but we’re not satisfied yet and that’s good…. We’re working to improve. The effort and attitude is first priority. If we put the attitude that represents Bear River that’s all we need.”

Even after a second win, players said they plan to follow their coach’s philosophy, and are not satisfied just yet.

“I think we could have beaten them by a lot more,” said Sydny Bishop, a freshman.

The team’s third win left players feeling confident and ready to keep improving.

“We played better than yesterday, but the score didn’t show it,” said AJ Derise. “We could still play better yet.”