The boys basketball season at RCHS officially started on Wednesday, Nov. 16, and is currently undefeated in pre-season play. With fall sports seasons fully wrapped up because of CIF tournaments, there was little downtime between the end of the fall season and the beginning of the season of winter sports. 

One of the biggest sports of the winter season is basketball, and with it just starting off it’s hard to say where the RCHS boys varsity basketball team will go from here. The boys basketball team started strong during the St. Monica’s Winter Westside Tip-Off Classic tournament with a win against Sage Hill High School at St. Monica High School, with the final score being 84-76. 

“I thought we played [well], but there’s still the thing of always needing to do better, [especially] with [us winning] CIF last [year],” varsity forward Sepasiano Sekona said. 

Over Thanksgiving Break, the team won three more games. The first of the three in the Battlezone Tournament hosted at Centennial High School where the Cougars defeated Long Beach Poly High School 74-64. The second was a non-league match against Beaumont High School, with RCHS once again taking the win with a final score of 61-47. And the last game, being played on Saturday, Nov. 26, against Roosevelt High School with the final score of 63-60. 

On the Monday back from Thanksgiving Break, RCHS hosted the IE Classic Tournament, and ended up coming out on top, taking down Etiwanda High School.

“It was great to get over the hump with them and finally beat them….We still have a long way to go. Both league games are going to be a battle between both teams,” long time boys varsity basketball coach and Athletic Director Mr. William Burke said. 

The basketball team is coming off of a strong season from last year, being named CIF Champions, so it’s no doubt that expectations are set high for this season.

“We do have a lot of goals that we’ve set, we’d like to win the tournament we host this week, the IE classic, the Baseline League, and another CIF tournament, which we can do if we keep playing to our ability,” Burke said.