Madison Thomas

The basketball team playing defense.

This was the first time since 2019 the boys at AJMS had a basketball team. The team had a rough first season back this winter, only winning 1 out of the 7 games they played. Former teacher Evyan Green, security guard Miles, and teacher Madison Thomas were the ones who coached the team. 

Coach Thomas said, “We played really well together, not a lot of fighting, good chemistry.”

Some standout players included Jerson Martinez, Erick Guatemala, Luis Villalobos Ramon Jr, Luis Itzep, Ethan Navarro, and Dian Diaz.

Player Erick Guatemala said,  “We worked good as a team because we would pass.”

Erick, Jerson and Ms. Thomas all said that they could have been one of the best teams in the league. 

Thomas said, “I think that it was a successful season because they improved a lot from day one of tryouts.” 

The players had some struggles, including communication, strength and getting easily flustered.   

Thomas said, “Ref calls would get in their heads. Players would be mad.”

Luis Itzep had many times when they didn’t use enough of their physical strength in games.

Player Luis Itzep said “Probably, strength was the weakness.”

Even if they did well against each other in practice, they couldn’t perform as well against other teams.

Luis Itzep said, “The team was good in practice but in the game they were uncoordinated and lost.”

On the court they would get in each others heads, making them confused. 

Thomas said, “I feel like, yes, they would get in their heads and impact the team.”

This team didn’t really communicate on the court.

Luis Itzep said “Didn’t communicate as much as needed.”

Thomas will be making a basketball team again next year. With all the experience she learned from this year’s team, she does want to do much better. 

Thomas said, “If we had more time, more regularly, we could have been unstoppable but we only practiced two times a week.”