Leadership Basketball Team Gets a New Home and Reaches the Playoffs

For the first time in the school’s history, the Leadership Panthers hosted games at their own court.  In previous years, the team  practiced in the school’s lobby and coach, Randy Spotts, scheduled games in gyms owned by other schools.  When there were no gyms available, the team would have been forced to forfeit the game.  It has been a blessing to have a home court thanks to Trinity Church. 

“In my sophomore year our team practices were in our school lobby, we would run our plays and workout in the lobby,” said Josh Woody, a senior on the team. “It was really challenging missing out on the space of a basketball court to practice on.”

During the team’s first season with a home gym, they made it to the playoffs, ending years of drought, missing the playoffs. The season included a total of 16 games, but we only played 13 due to COVID-19. Our record was 6 wins and 7 losses, including 3 wins at home. The team had plenty of ups and downs throughout the season, but always pushed through and did their best. 

“The overall experience was great.   After winning, the celebrations were my favorite part,” said Sebastian Mucollari, a junior on the team.

To prepare for games hosted at home, the Leadership Panthers’ practiced every Tuesday through Thursday, which helped build to chemistry from learning plays to having fun. 

“Working with my boys and building team chemistry at practices was my favorite.” said Karim Diallo, a sophomore shooting guard. 

“My favorite part was the practices because it allowed us to work and get better on our game as a team and we had lots of fun doing so.” and Isaiah Gonzalez another sophomore who plays small forward on the team. “Playing games and practicing with my friends on the team was a wonderful experience.” 

Moving forward, the team’s goal is to get better as a team overall and keep having great playoff run experiences. They can still use the home gym and continue on the path that was built by the culture of the team this year. 

 “The amount of success we had this season because we made the playoffs even though I believe we could’ve made it farther.” said Coach Spotts. “ It’s the first time the team has its own home and we did our best to use that to our advantage.”

“Our team this year was great and it still has potential for more in the upcoming years.” said Zaire Bethea, a sophomore on the team.