WOOOOOO! Those are the sounds of Beth Tfiloh fans cheering after the JV Boys won the MIAA C Conference championship for the second year in a row. The JV teams of 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 both won the championship with the 23-24 team having a perfect undefeated season. If we were to win this year it would go down in history, as most teams don’t win two chips in a row, let alone three!
Ilan G. ‘26, one of four returning players from the 15-0 championship team last season, says that he believes this year the team has a chance to win it all again. When asked what attributes from last year’s team he could bring to this year’s team he said, “As a returning player from last year, I think that I can bring the experience I gained from last year like knowing how to handle tough games and how to stay positive even when things get hard.” These things are important to any team as every team runs into obstacles and needs people who know how to handle them. This year Ilan has been charged with being a leader and said that he believes he can lead the team to win because of his experience and that he will lead the team in the right direction by showing his best effort and respect to his teammates and coaches. This year Ilan said that the biggest challenge would be not being ready for opponents and what they are capable of.
Spencer R ‘27, also part of last year’s team, has high expectations this year, as he also believes the team has the ability to win it all again. Some things that he said he could bring to the team from last year were making practices fun and enjoyable, the understanding of offensive and defensive schemes, and getting people to enjoy basketball altogether. “I think our team this year has a lot of potential and we’re really, really good,” Spencer responded to the question of whether thinks we could win this year. And when asked what things to do to lead the right way he said, “I think I will use my prior knowledge, but I will also be able to learn further, how we run our defense and keep the energy high”. He believes the biggest competition won’t be a specific team but overconfidence.
Head Coach Eli Creeger believes that this year’s team can win again, which would make it his 4th championship since 2017. Creeger describes a championship team as “[Having a] toughness, or an edge to them both physically and mentally. A mentality that nobody is going to have it easy when they play them.” This, skill, and “animosity between the players” make a championship team, according to Creeger. As he keeps coaching and winning, Creeger has learned some key skills that make him such a great coach, including flexibility and humility which is why he is a winning coach and why his players love playing for him. When asked why he continues to coach at BT, he simply explains that he loves the challenge of building new teams each year, loves the competition, and loves building relationships on and off the court. So to simply put it in his words, “Why BT? Where else?!” Each year there are similar teams that bring strong competition, and this year coach believes that these teams are, Archbishop Curley, Cristo Rey, and Saints Peter and Paul, but the league is very top-heavy. Although he has coached three championship teams, hopefully, a fourth, the team he believes is best was the 2023-2024 team. That team going undefeated, with a 15-0 record dominating every game, and winning the championship, in his mind, was the best.
