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(ALEX HAVARDANSKY | THE GRAHAM LEADER) Nick Wankowicz looks for an open man in the paint Tuesday, June 17, against the Cisco Loboes. The Steers will be competing in a fall league hosted in Graham starting Monday, Sept. 22.
With fall sports underway, it’s easy to forget even more teams at Graham High School will be kicking off their seasons going into winter soon. The Steers will march one step closer to that with the start of their fall basketball league.
The league will stretch across four Mondays from Monday, Sept. 22 to Monday, Oct. 13. There will also be an additional day of play Saturday, Oct. 4, for the Steers Saturday Hoops Shootout.
Being that it is a small league, the Steers will get a healthy dose of competition against familiar opponents like Breckenridge, Jacksboro and Wichita Falls Christian.
Graham will also see additional teams in the shootout event against teams like Bridgeport, Graford and Whitney.
Steers new head coach Quinton Fossett said he’s very excited to see how the team performs in this first go-around before the start of the regular season and saw a lot of strengths from the team in the summer league.
“I think we have a lot of positive momentum,” Fossett said. “It’s always a big deal when you go 8-0 in a summer league. These guys are another year older and that’s a big thing.”
Fossett went on to say that he believes the team plays from a holistic standpoint, with no one player looking to shine above the rest and all of them collectively working toward the goal of winning.
“We shoot the ball really well, we pass the ball really well, we don’t care who scores or how we score. We just want the ball to go in the basket,” Fossett said.
However, while Fossett ultimately feels strong about his unit going into this fall league and into the season, the team also has things to work on.
Fossett said that the main things he wants to see from the team during the fall league is better protection of the ball, to create more opportunities for scoring, as well as building a team identity.
In particular, Fossett hopes its identity is based on physicality by crashing the boards, boxing people out of the paint and bringing overall toughness and intensity.
All of these games will take place at the Graham Junior High School gym starting at 5 p.m. Monday, Sept. 22.
