- May 3, 2024
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The Matanzas Pirates lost their two best players, Tahiem Shakir and Madison Mlinac, to graduation last season, but that was only the beginning. In all, only one player from last year’s team remained, Aaron Goodwin.
“Well, it sucks that no one came back because we had some good players, but the new guys have done good adjusting,” Goodwin said. “I like how our team is this year, probably because we're all smart people. We work really well together as a unit.”
In spite of only returning one varsity player, coach Dan Toblin already likes what he sees in his young team, which currently has a winning record.
“We graduated a lot of leadership, and our point guard from last year had grade issues, so he wasn’t allowed to play,” he said. “Both of our post players decided that basketball wasn’t for them, so we’re new and young again. With being so young, it’s actually great, because multiple guys are stepping up to be one great leader. I tell the guys all the time that it’s five guys playing as one.”
Through their first few games, Toblin credits his guys for eventually coming together and working on their goal to get better each day.
“Getting everyone to gel was, initially, very difficult, just to try to figure out everyone’s personality,” Toblin said. “Once they all bought in and figured out that everyone can be leaders but have different slices of the pie, they started to gel and figure out their roles. We’re not where we want to be, nowhere close. But, we’re headed in the right direction.”
