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Schools

Boys' Basketball Team Growing Into Its Own

West Deptford grabbed three more wins over a year ago and will be returning all but one player next season.

On paper, the West Deptford High School boys' basketball team doubled its win total from a year ago.

In actuality, the Eagles did a lot more.

One year after winning just three games and being blown out in the majority of its losses, West Deptford improved leaps and bounds this winter, playing a competitive brand of basketball that has head coach Don Clark excited about the direction the program is heading.

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“The transformation from last year to this year is that we played 26 games (last year), and in 20 of those games we weren’t competitive, Clark said. “This year it flip-flopped. We were competitive in 20 games this year: lost by five to Woodbury, four to Paulsboro, we hung with Sterling, and these are quality teams.”

Much of the positivity came from the final stretch of the season, where the Eagles won three of their last five, including Colonial Conference wins over Audubon and Gateway.

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“The thing was, we would be in the game, take the lead and then somehow we would lose it and make some mistakes,” Clark said. “All that built to these last two games where now we took leads, the teams made runs (at us), but we were able to make a play, keep our poise and make a shot at the end of the game.”

Growing pains were expected this season with the Eagles having just one senior—Jordan Haines–on the roster, and that’s precisely the way things panned out. The team went through a pair of seven-game losing streaks and was unable to earn a trip to the Group II playoffs.

Despite the struggles, Clark said the team kept its nose to the hardwood and kept working until things started to click. Because of their late-season turnaround, several of the returning players expressed confidence heading into next season.

“I’m just looking forward to next year,” said freshman guard Justin Hansen. “I wanted to end the season on a good note for Jordan. Jordan is a big loss but we have juniors and good young players coming up.”

Haines believes a winning season can be in the cards for his teammates next year.

“Everybody else in the conference is going to be losing people and we are losing me and that’s all,” a humble Haines said. “They are going to be strong next year.”

However confident the players may be, simply returning the same roster will not be enough to ensure a more successful season. For more wins to come, the players must put in work through the offseason on various parts of their game. Clark said the players needed to focus on getting stronger, shooting better and handling the ball with more ease.

“We have to do the team camps,” Clark said. “We did the team camp last year, but some of the guys weren’t there, so it has to be a team commitment. When you win a couple of games now maybe the guys will buy in.

“We’ve got to do the little things like open the gym and shoot for an hour. Those are the things that can make a big difference.”

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