A season filled with dismal lows combated by resounding highs, in which a close group of teammates grew even closer to one another.

This synopsis describes the 2015-16 season for the Braves Varsity Boys Basketball team. A tandem in which everybody played an imperative role to success, the Braves finished the regular season with a record of 7-11.

“A positive from the year was just the group of student athletes that we had on the team, it was a good group of guys that worked together. We didn’t have a lot of issues, we all played together, we all played hard, we had great leadership, we understood our roles, and it was fun to come to practice every single day. I loved the group of guys that we had, I knew we had that going in, and then that stayed true the whole way” said Head Coach Chris Bilanko.

Although the season got off to a rough start, with the team dropping their first 5 games, the boys found success in the midway portion of the season winning 5 of their next 6 games, including a very impressive home win over Lakeside on January 5th.

“Beating Lakeside at home was definitely a highlight of our season” said Senior shooting guard Connor Bennett

The team’s astounding play began to subside as the boys found themselves in the midst of another 5 game skid. However the resilient group of seniors, whose experience solidified them as leaders on the team, refused to end their Blanchet Basketball tenures on a losing note.

“Our Seniors are definitely going to be missed. Most of them have been on varsity for 3 years, so relationships have been formed where there’s a lot of trust and there’ a lot of loyalty to those guys cause we’ve been through so much together, good and bad. They’ve committed to what we want to do and they’ve been on board with everything we’ve done” said Coach Bilanko.

Faced with the challenging task of wrapping up their 3A Metro schedule with two away games in the same week of play, the boys showed a tremendous amount of heart winning both matchups against Ballard and Bainbridge, concluding their regular season play and qualifying themselves for the Metro playoffs.

The team won their first playoff matchup on the road against Ballard, 76-61 downing the Beavers @ Ballard two times in two weeks. The boys fell short in their following matchup, yet again on the road, against Lakeside, 43-62. The Lions avenged their upset loss the Braves earlier in the year and ended the team’s substantial season with a final record of 8-12.

“Qualifying for Metros and getting out of that first round was another highlight for us, it was a little disappointing that we couldn’t get back to the district tournament, but we had a good year nonetheless” said Coach Bilanko.

With the team’s substantial number Seniors taking up so many minutes and holding so much responsibility this season, the team will surely have to work to establish a new identity with next season’s squad. A lot of this essential work and preparation will come in the offseason assures Coach Bilanko.

“One goal we as a program have for the offseason is to get as many of our kids that want to play basketball on a consistent basis, to get them playing, a lot of kids are doing spring stuff, a lot of kids are doing fall stuff, and obviously that’s what we want at Blanchet, but also we want to make sure we carve out time in June and July for them to play together to establish a sense for the team early.”