New coach brings high hopes for girls hoops
Girls Varsity Basketball looks to win their first ever city championship under a new head coach
After a successful season in which the varsity team made it to the second round of the city championships and lost in the semi-finals of the regional championship, Michael Strok stepped down as head coach.
Strok said “I decided to step away because I was coaching basketball and baseball and I have a five year old son and I decided that I would like to spend more time with him and his hockey season”. Strok will still be working with the team and he decided to stay as the head coach of the baseball team.
Nicholas Teich the former coach of the sophomore team will take over as head coach.
“The girls on the team who are returning won’t feel any different because he has been around the team so it won’t be much of a change.” said Strok “They’ve all had him as a coach when they were freshman and sophomores, and now it is just him as a coach when they are juniors and seniors.”
The new coach is the “best man for the job”said Strok, who has been friends with him for a long time. When asked what he will miss the most, Strok said “winning, that’s a very good girls basketball team”.
Teich said “I feel very lucky to be the head coach of the girls basketball program here at Jones because of the high caliber of young women I have on the team”.
“There is a lot of transition in our program this year” said Teich. “We have a lot of new faces getting significant playing time as we graduated four three-year varsity starters, including the leading female point scorer in JCP history, Alyssa Streeter ‘18”.
Teich also said, “we have big expectations in our junior class as they have had a high level of success as freshman and sophomores, winning the JV conference back to back years”.
The girls team is in the highest division and has never won their conference. “We are going to try and make it to the playoffs and win playoffs” said Charleen Necor ‘21 who intends on playing for the JV or varsity team this year.
The JV team who finished fourth in their conference last year and is “hoping to make it to the championship this year” said Necor, is also transitioning to a new coach in Cahontas Vincent.
The JV team needed a new coach after Strok stepped down as varsity head coach, and Teich took his place. Therefore, the team needed someone brand new to fill the vacant coaching spot.