After almost a two-year losing streak, the boys basketball team beat West Springfield on their senior night, Feb. 11. “Our guys had a different energy [at the game], they felt confident, they just clicked,” said Head Coach Benjamin Gildea. “We were up 9-2 to start the game and just never looked back.”

The Patriot district is one of the most competitive districts in the state, according to Andrew Jimmo, director of student activities, and the basketball team had exceptional competition. Before the win, Jimmo said, “Sometimes you are in a drought and you just need to keep working through what’s going to happen and believing and trusting in the process.” 

Throughout the season, the team stayed motivated during difficult practices by working on continual improvement. “We try to focus on building each day,” said Gildea. “It’s not easy whenever you’re not seeing how hard you’re working pay off in games, but if you really focus on making each other better each day, there’s a lot of motivation in that.” 

Senior Walter Gorski also agreed that working hard each practice was important to keep the team motivated before their game against West Springfield. “Just to keep pushing, not to give up, not really any of the guys have given up and we’ve just come to practice every day ready to play,” said Gorski. “It isn’t easy to see from the outside that we’re in the gym every day trying to get better.”

The final score of the game was 49-41, and the student section stormed the court. Gildea said the game finally felt normal after Covid-19 limited spectators for the last two years. The basketball season ended Feb. 21 after losing to Hayfield in Regionals. Despite a difficult season, the team finished the season breaking their losing streak. “Sometimes whenever you face adversity over a long period of time you start to question a lot of things,” said Gildea. “We’ve had consistent success on senior night, and I don’t know what it is, but there’s just a different air in the field house.”