A successful football season left the Valpo Vikings short three starters to open their basketball season Friday night, but the Vikings still came out on top with a 76-27 win over the Hobart Brickies.
“Tonight we’re a little shorthanded,” Viking’s Head Coach Barak Coolman said, “but overall we’re really excited for a chance to get to play and see what we need to work on to continue to improve.”
While three of their top nine were not yet playing due to their football season going all the way to semi-state, Viking Captain Brandon Newman led the way for the team, sinking threes and slamming dunks.
“He had an outstanding junior year for us,” Coolman said of the senior, who just signed to play basketball for the Purdue University Boilermakers. “We’re expecting big things out of him this season.”
Cheerleading Captain Mimi Wong expects big things for the basketball team this year after enjoying the excitement of the football season.
“It’s great to see the community come together for football and now for basketball,” Wong said. “We’re supposed to have a really good season for basketball, too.”
“Our main objective is to be the best team we can be and overachieve in every aspect,” Coolman said, noting that this is a season dedicated to daily improvement. “This is our first game, and early in the season it can be hard to know how we’ll play and what the Brickies will bring out. We’re going to just compete and hopefully take care of business.”
Brickies’ Head Coach Michael Brown took a similar approach to the game.
“I talked to our guys about playing tough every possession,” Brown said. “They’re one of the best teams in the area, if not the state, but we’re looking forward to competing every single possession.”
Both teams put up a great effort and the crowded stands enjoyed an exciting opening game. Congratulations to the Vikings on their first win of the season and to the Brickies for putting up a good fight.