The majority of the 3rds Basketball team will not be playing any games this season; it’s a change that those involved say will have significant benefits for those on the court.
On Wednesday, Dec. 6, Athletic Director and 3rds Basketball coach Mark Conroy decided to create an intramural league within the 3rds team; they will be playing 4v4 games against each other, and practice separately from the 15-person game team. Conroy believes this will let all 38 members of the team play basketball, while providing a competitive experience for everyone.
The Williston Boys Basketball program is divided into four teams: varsity, junior varsity, 3rds, and 4ths. The varsity team is comprised mainly of recruited players from all around the nation and world, several of whom already have offers to play in college, as well as a small number of non-recruited athletes.
On the other hand, the JV and 3rds team are composed of non-recruited students who play at a relatively lower level; middle school students occupy the 4ths team.
The main reason the intramural league was created was because of the vast increase in the number of players for this year’s season, Coach Conroy told The Willistonian.
“We simply have a huge number of 3rds level players out for basketball,” he wrote. “It was not possible for us to field a team with 38 players so we decided to create an intramural league to provide a competitive fun experience for all boys signed up for basketball.”
This is very different from last year’s 3rds basketball program, which rotated between two teams, both of which played games in the season.
“We had 25 a year ago and were able to divide into two pretty even groups, each of which played a portion of our thirds basketball schedule,” Conroy explained.
Kenta Hayashi, a 9th grader, believes playing in the intramural league will significantly benefit both teams.
“I believe this will benefit the intramural league players by giving them a chance to improve their skills and knowledge about basketball,” Kenta said. “In addition, the game team members, thanks to the separate practice times and [fewer] number of team members, can focus on developing themselves to win more games.”
He believes this was the best-case scenario for both the experienced game team and developing intramural team players.
“I think there will be minimal issues surrounding this decision, especially since coach Conroy has encouraged intramural league players to develop to a point where they can play in the game team and compete against other schools,” said Kenta.
Lucien Yin, a 9th-grade intramural league player looking to move up to the game team, thinks the decision will suit all levels of players on the team.
“I think this new system will [fit the needs of] all players, whether they are looking to play seriously against other schools or just have fun,” Lucien said.
Despite this, he questions if separating the teams’ practice sessions was a good choice.
“The only concern I have for the new system is making two different practice times; [doing this] might limit the amount of practice time each team gets,” said Lucien.
Chase Krusko, a 9th-grader on the 3rds squad, thinks that the new system could bring diversity to the game team roster.
Chase thinks the creation of the intramural league “will benefit the team since the team roster will become diverse as time goes on thanks to the several intramural league players who will be joining the team throughout the season.”
However, he also mentioned the potential problem the intramural league players might face coming from their limited number of players.
“I think that the players on the intramural league might be [subjected to] less experience and development compared to the game team players since they don’t get to play other schools and only play within each other,” he said.