This year’s young Saints’ Varsity Basketball team grew as players, students, and people during a season that presented many unique challenges.  The perseverance and passion shown by the members of this year’s team in the face of these challenges will always be remembered.

First, the Saints took on many veteran prep school teams despite their inexperience.  The Saints began the year with only one returning student-athlete from the previous school year.  In response to that challenge Sixth Former Gbolahan  Awofianye demonstrated confidence and poise as a veteran leader.  Awofianye’s memorable performance against Flint Hill nearly led to an upset of The Washington Post’s 4th-ranked school in the D.C.-Metro area.  In the final game of the season the young group impressed all in attendance with their maturity and discipline during a close loss at Sidwell Friends, the eventual champions of the DCSIAA State Championship Tournament. The team gained experience and knowledge through their exposure to such strong competition.

Second, the team suffered a few season-ending injuries to key players. After losing Awofiranye and Fourth Former Frankie Corsi to season-ending injuries just before the start of the SJIT, the team refused to make excuses and competed with three strong teams from schools in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Pennsylvania. During the SJIT, Fourth Former Xzavier Long impressed college coaches and fans in attendance with 22 points, 12 rebounds and 9 assists against Riverdale Baptist in his third game in three days. Long and others showed tremendous resilience in the face of the team’s injuries.

Finally, a few of the student-athletes challenged themselves by stepping out of their comfort zones to play basketball after not participating in that sport in previous years at Saint James or other schools. Coach Kevin Breslin said he feels grateful to these five students for their dedication, compassion, and courage in the face of adversity. Each day they worked to better themselves in a new area and never once complained during our 4-23 season. They were supportive teammates through each of the losses and provided a few highlights to the team’s season. Among these are Fifth Former Tripp Bagarus playing tenacious defense against Sidwell’s point guard Jason Gibson; Sixth Former Idriss Traore driving and passing to Xzavier Long for a thunderous dunk against Peddie in the second game of the season; and Fourth Former and Saints star running back Isaiah Knight emerging to make several crucial shots during the stretch run of our season.