As the clock hit 0.0 seconds and the final score was illuminated, the players on the boys’ varsity basketball team felt an all-too-familiar feeling: that they had worked way too hard for little results. Most players on the team gave up any high hopes they once had for the team about midway through the season, including just reaching the playoffs. “After having only one win in the Ivy League, it was a pretty big deal that we made the playoffs,” senior captain Dan Chung said.
As Dan said, the team only had one Ivy League win last year, being the first one in two years. Just as expected from a record such as that, the boys’ playoff run was a short one: a game where they got blown out by Riverdale, the team that went on to win it all. One possible reason for the struggles that the team has endured in the past couple years is the fact that in the last three years, the program has had three separate coaches. This year will be Coach Fink’s second year as head coach, and players have better attitudes going into the season this year. “Now that we have one year under our belts with [Coach Fink], we know what he wants from us,” Dan said. “I think this year he’s going to give us more freedom to just play basketball.”
Coach Fink has a long history in basketball. Aside from playing in high school, he’s going into his tenth year as a coach. Among these years in coaching, he has spent four of them as the head coach at Ivy League rival Poly Prep, as well as two years coaching at the collegiate level. Given this extensive background in the game, last year’s team didn’t quite live up to his standard. “I have high expectations, so they didn’t exactly match up with what I had anticipated,” Coach Fink said.
Rather than looking at last season as a failure, he likes to look at it as a test-run to figure out what was good and what wasn’t. “Stepping back during the offseason gave me time to reflect and realize where we were,” he said. “And we did take the proper steps to laying our foundation that we are building upon right now.”
Even in the first few days of practice, Coach Fink can already see this transformation happening. “Certain things that we were learning last year are already in, and we’re jumping off from a whole new level,” he said. This improvement hasn’t come easy for the boys’ basketball team, however. Frequent training sessions on the court and in the weight room during the offseason has been a key factor. This training has helped the team grow, both physically and mentally. “After being around each other a lot, the team became very tight-knit,” senior captain Charlie Pidoriano said. “[The training] helped us get better as individuals as well as a team.”
“It’s vital,” said Coach Fink of the offseason training and the sense of comraderie it brings to the team. “It does play a factor in tough circumstances when you are on the court. It can help you get out of some tough positions when you’re in them.” Charlie believes that the team can have a record of over .500 this year, a vast improvement over last year’s. Dan’s goals however, are a little bit more ambitious. “I want to win the NYSAIS championship, as well as the Ivy League,” Dan said.
Coach Fink on the other hand is going into this season with a more short-term mentality. “We just need to get better every day,” he said. “Where that leads us, how high our ceiling is, who knows. All I know is that we’re jumping off from a much better place right now and if we keep moving in the direction we are now and guys keep working as hard as they have been, we’ll get there.”
To facilitate this improvement, some aspects of the team need to be rendered, including Coach Fink’s coaching style. “I’m not trying to put a square peg in a round hole and say this is my style,” he said. “You’ve got to adapt to what you have and what players’ strengths are. The whole system has to change.”
The team only lost one starter last year, and is looking forward to some talent coming in from underclassmen such as sophomore Darius Inzar, a returning player who will be an important part of the team this year. “He’s one of the smartest kids I’ve ever coached at any level,” Coach Fink said of Darius.
As for the underclassmen new to the team, Dan and Charlie need to work extra hard to bring them under their wings. “I need to lead by example, work hard every day, and hopefully they’ll follow my lead,” Charlie said.
Going into the season, Coach Fink is looking for three qualities in the team: defense, mental toughness, and execu- tion. “If you do those things daily,” Coach Fink said, “it will put you head and shoulders above other teams. And hey, the shot might not fall that day but you’re putting yourself in a good position to be successful.”
