By RayKisha Vaughn

The Loy Norrix Men’s Basketball team is boosting their intensity, this year they are currently one of our undefeated teams here at Norrix. They also feel more confident about keeping their undefeated record so far, this year and beating their rivals.

Varsity basketball player junior Tony Boykins has been playing basketball for the Loy Norrix Men’s Basketball team since his sophomore year here at Loy Norrix. Boykins happens to be one of the lead scorer’s with 7.4 points per game. He is also a starter.

“Our season is going to be excellent,” said Boykin’s.

Last year the Knights didn’t really have a lot of people to play every position that needed to be played, so other members had to step it up and play out of position in order to have good games.

“I feel more confident this year because we have a deep bench and we can either go small, or really big,” said Boykins.

Senior Shaquille Love is also a returning player and is confident about this year’s season. Love has been a part of the team since his junior year here at Norrix, and he has positive things to say about his coach and team mates. Love is another lead scorer of the game with12.6 points per game; he is also a starter.

“I think our season will be very good this year. We will win seventeen out of twenty games this year,” said Love.

Sophomore Bishop Robinson has been on the Loy Norrix Men’s Basketball team since he was a freshman. Robinson believes the team is coming along better and the players are gaining more useful skills for their favorite sport. Robinson is another lead scorer with 14.1 points per game, and Bishop also start for the Knights.

“Our team has a lot more communication this year. We will go farther than we did last year because our starting five is a beast,” said Robinson.

The team feels very confident about beating their main rival this year which is Kalamazoo Central. Last year the men’s basketball team failed to beat this rival, even though they went all the way to district semifinal against Central and they failed to win their last game of the year. The game was hosted by Portage Central High School on March, 10, 2010.  Loy Norrix men were overwhelmed with Central’s defense and lost with an overall score of 86-52. This year the Knights are determined to break their loosing streaks against Kalamazoo Central.

The Loy Norrix Men’s Basketball team has two new players, senior Torry Lavender and junior Raymond Ryan. These players transferred from Kalamazoo Central in order to continue playing their favorite sport, either due to the lack of playing time or because they were cut from the team.

“Central is a team that just go at games, while Norrix is a team consisting of plays,” said Lavender.

Senior Torry Lavender used to be a student here at Loy Norrix his freshman year until there was a school district change which placed him at Kalamazoo Central, but now he’s back at Norrix and is ready to play. He played his junior year at Kalamazoo Central, but he just started playing in the games this year at Norrix and he plans on helping the rest of the team out by continuing their wins. Lavender averages a total of 1.3 points per game.

“I feel like we can beat Central because we are ready physically and emotionally, and people think that we are the underdogs because we lost to them the last couple of years,” said Lavender.

Junior Raymond Ryan is one of the transfer students and this is his first year here at Loy Norrix. He had a hard time at the beginning of the year, but now he has adapted as though he has been here for all three years.

“Here at Norrix we have different type of offenses, and the coaches have a very different style of coaching,” said Ryan.

Ryan has been playing since the beginning of the season here at Norrix and he has been doing all that he can to help contribute to the wins that the Knights have had with their undefeated record, making an average of 3.4 points per game.