WICHITA, Kan.—
The Trinity Knights Boys’ Basketball team graduated six seniors last season, but they are confident in their young talent in the 2012-13 season.“They’ll play with a lot of heart and tenacity; they’ll never give up, and will have a lot of diligence,” said Coach Steve Miller. “I think they’ll come to work each day at practice, but they’ll have to play as a team with the lack of size.”
Lack of size will be an issue with the tallest player being only 6’1.
“We’re probably going to have to play a little up-tempo and try to get the ball up the floor a little quicker,” said Miller.
Although the team lost six seniors, the team doesn’t believe they’ll have a rebuilding year.
“Our team will be pretty solid this year,” said senior Ryan Miller. “We’ll be small but we’ll be fast. A lot of pressure will be taken off me. There will be more options on offense and plus we have some good athletes and we’re very agile.”
The Knights will have the mentality of winning every game this year.
“We’re going to be pushing it to win,” said Miller. “We’ll be disappointed if we lose a game because we’re going to strive to be better than we have been these past few years. With the skill we have this year there’s no reason we shouldn’t win every season game this year.”
The team has set high expectations for themselves.
“We want to win the league, even though we aren’t the favorite to win the league. And then make it out of our sub-state,” said Steve Miller.
The coaches have strong spiritual goals that they value overall.
“First of all, that they would come together as a team and that they would care for one another,” said Steve Miller. “As individuals, that they grow closer to the Lord through playing basketball at Trinity Academy.”
The Knights say that they will miss the six seniors from last year, but are optimistic about their underclassmen.
“We did lose quite a few seniors that did contribute, but we have good underclassmen coming in to fill their spots up that will be just as equal or even better,” said Ryan Miller. “We will miss the hustle and defensive abilities of all those players.”
Miller will be forced to be a team leader this year just as he was in soccer, but he is comfortable with the role.
“Just to relax everyone and be a leader on the court showing that varsity is not too different from JV,” he said. “When you get on the court you can’t be nervous, you have got to relax, play as a team and I can help that by creating offense and leading the team on defense.”
The Knights will rely on upperclassmen leadership to carry them through the trials they face this season.
