Beginning the pre-season with 2 wins and 8 loses, the Varsity basketball leaders think they are making progress before the district games start.

The team is also adjusting to having Rashad Culver as the new head coach although the players know him from when he coached JV teams in the past.

The Varsity boys have been practicing in and out of school and seem to be positive about the start of the season no matter what their pre-season stats are.

Throughout the fall, they worked to determine who the team leaders would be. Nelson White has taken on that role of becoming the team captain. However, he is not alone taking on new responsibilities.

“All the seniors are leaders, but like different times different people will notice different things,” he said. “As a program we sit somewhere so anyone can correct anyone else. We have our seniors who are supposed to be there.”

Beyond leadership, senior KJ Robinson has taken on the role as a motivator to keep the team going when things get tough.

“He always likes to get on people if they’re feeling down,” said senior Jason Evans.

Students who encourage hard work are the ones that lead the team and they are the ones that everyone looks up to.

“I feel like the leaders bring a sense of seriousness to the game,” Robinson said. “Because we have more freedom, we have more responsibility to be serious and get stuff done.”

The seniors said they like having Culver as their head coach because many of them had him as their freshman coach when they started at Akins.

“He’s been coaching me since freshman year,” White said. “He’s doing new things but I think since he’s new he takes a lot of information from the players and tries to listen to them a lot.”

The players have a close bond/relationship with Culver because he jokes around with the team and has also coached most of the varsity team for 4 years now. Senior Robinson said enjoys having Culver as his coach.

“The main difference this year is that we have more freedom just to play basketball,” Robinson said.

Culver said he strives to find strength out of every student to help the team in any situation.

“I will use every player that I think will help us win a game,” Culver said.

The team is united in its goal of making it to the playoffs. Beyond their goals for the team, the players have their own goals for personal growth this year.

The boys Varsity Basketball Team will play their first district game against the Del Valle Cardinals at home on January 12.