When students join the School’s varsity men’s basketball team, they enter a culture defined by intensity. For some, that environment fosters joy and determination to make the bucket, but for others, the conditions become too much to manage.
Every year, a couple of players step away from the ball, citing the pressure to keep up. Former 11th grade varsity member Davis Lynch remembers the moment he realized he couldn’t continue: “The conditioning was way too hard, and I wasn’t fully invested in basketball. I was thinking that if I am not all in on this, why am I doing it?” Lynch also noted the struggle to balance life and basketball, saying, “I wasn’t able to play fall baseball because basketball pre-season was too intense and took up too much time. I wasn’t going to be on the team if I wasn’t going to put in full effort, so I decided to quit.”
However, for those who stayed on the team, dedicated to improving, the challenge remains and is still demanding. Current senior varsity player Sam Gulaid describes the struggle but highlights the rewarding aspect of the sport. He says, “I think being a member of the basketball team and all the activities that we do, obviously, they’re challenging, but I never thought that they’ve been challenging without reason.” Even though some days, Gulaid doesn’t want to do the extra lap, he explains the social aspect of the sport and how he has built strong bonds with his teammates: “I’ve also made a lot of friends because of it . . . there’s nothing that connects you more than doing hard things with other people, like making new friends in different grades . . . I never questioned whether or not it would help us get better as a team or improve.”
While students have differing opinions about the team’s harsh schedule, Head Coach of the basketball team, Ryan Diew, explains exactly how the schedule goes: “We lift three days a week, do conditioning twice a week, and there’s one mandatory gym session . . . A lot of kids also come to morning workouts before school starts. We have something going on pretty much every day.” Diew claims that this structure is meant to prepare athletes for higher competition, saying, “basketball is a very competitive sport in the Bay Area . . . Last year we went 14-14 and still got bumped up to NCS Division 2 . . . for us to be able to compete with the teams that we’re going to play, we’re going to have to train like those teams.”
Although the time commitment necessary for the basketball team sparks controversy, one thing is for certain: the School’s program is built on time and discipline. Without these factors, the basketball team would not be as successful as it is today. Still, each athlete has to decide for themselves whether the intensity fuels their passion or becomes too heavy to handle.