Former Davis High basketball player, Matt Morrell, goes in for a lay-up

The Boys’ basketball team is holding tryouts on Monday, November 11 in the main gym. Coach Simms, the new head coach of the boys’ basketball team, has organized the tryout all the way to the creation of the team.

“Tryouts will start Monday and we’ll go with juniors and seniors from 2:30 to 4:00 and then the sophomores come in after that for about an hour and a half. We will have the same format for Monday and Tuesday and then we’ll have a first cut. And then on Wednesday we will have the same time frame… and have the team by Thursday,” Simms said.

The purpose of a tryout is to get a team to a precise amount of players. This process is crucial for the coaches so that they can give an appropriate amount of playing time to every player. Coach Simms has already got a general idea of how many boys he is planning to keep this year.

“We’ll keep… fifteen or sixteen players on the basketball team,” Simms said.

Every good coach goes into a tryout with a plan. Simms is not new to this process, having been a boys’ basketball coach at Northridge High School before he came to Davis. Simms has four core characteristics that he looks for in athletes as they try out.

“[The characteristics I look for in players are:] talent, number one; character, number two; coachability, number three; and number four, a kid who buys into our family culture” Simms said.

Simms is optimistic about this upcoming basketball season. He has confidence in his returning veterans as well as his young players. No doubt, this year will be an interesting one for the boys’ basketball team.