“I learned that sometimes, individually when you’re having downs, you can’t let anything affect you because this is a group and this is teamwork, this is a team sport,” senior and Captain James Liu said.  “Even if you are experiencing something that’s not going so well, you still have to motivate your teammates, cheer them up, and you have to be a great teammate to them.”

A celebration is held to congratulate them and bid them farewell as Coach Ciarleglio gave a speech to show his appreciation of their effort throughout their high school sports career.

“Some of them, I coached for a few seasons, like Ren,” Coach Ciarleglio said. “He played for us for three years, so it kind of brings his whole career to one special last home game that we can celebrate him and his whole athletic career here. It’s nice for me to see them and to be able to say something about them in front of the students that were there, and the parents that were there.”

Having seniors on a team can lead to many positive benefits, such as improving the team’s coordination with their maturity and helping the team win games, even when it seems like there’s almost no hope of winning.

“I would say probably the Holy Cross game, since it was a 20 point comeback and those kids are brought into the school to play basketball, like strictly basketball,” Liu said.  “They’re recruited and they’re a powerhouse in New York City.  We beat them with our teamwork [and] with our never give up dedication. It was just really impressive.” 

The score was 52 to 54, Holy Cross up by 2.  Sophomore guard Jonathan Walker lost the ball at mid court. He picked up the ball, sized up his defender and crossed him to the floor with a beautiful cross jab move. He attacked the rim and passed to junior Jaden Azad.  Azad hit senior Sharpshooter Ren at the wing with 17 seconds left. Ren set his shot with a perfect base and Lewis is up by one. Lewis ended the game with fantastic defense and won against NYC powerhouse Holy Cross, 59-54.

The senior’s impact on the team goes beyond the varsity roster, as the team also has influenced over the JV team, including helping them in practice and working out with them to try and further improve everybody’s overall performance. 

“I want to say James, over the summer, he organized workouts with everybody and he invited me where I got better,” sophomore JV Basketball team member Justin Tong said.  

The seniors don’t only have an impact on the team, the team also has an impact on them. Liu tells us about the countless lessons he learned that have led to his own improvement as a person.

“It is very meaningful to me because as a group together, we’ve been through so many ups and downs, so many great experiences, and we learned from each other throughout our mistakes,” Liu said.  “It was just very meaningful to me.