The varsity boys basketball team plays their first game of the season against the Dearborn Pioneers on Dec. 1 at 7:00 p.m. The Pioneers enter this matchup looking for revenge after their 65-45 loss to the Buccaneers last season. In the 2022-2023 season, the Bucs were 11-2 at home while the Pioneers were 7-3 on the road.
“We have a very good opponent,” varsity coach Greg Immink said. “Dearborn was 19-7 last year, they lost in the regional finals to Detroit Cass Tech who won the state title, and they returned their top seven players, so it’s gonna be a big task for us.”
Although faced with new challenges including a shorter preseason, the Bucs have taken additional measures to prepare for this matchup and for the ones that follow.
“We have been, over the course of the last month or so, doing conditioning, weight training and individual stuff,” Immink said. “Our guys have been working hard in practice every day, trying to get better, both individually and collectively.”
The Bucs are certainly aiming to come out with a win, but they’re also looking to build chemistry and compete to the fullest degree possible to achieve that goal.
“The biggest thing I want to see is us compete,” Immink said. “Our goal is to be significantly better on the last day than we were at the start. It’s kind of the journey of the season, and we want to be playing our best ball at the end.”