An ambitious group of high schoolers take the “W” as they make their own intramural teams.  Earlier this year, the soccer team, SWFC and basketball team, CBC sparked widespread enthusiasm with their intramural high school sports teams. Compared to traditional high school athletics, which tend to be high pressure and highly competitive, these high schoolers have created a space that allows for fun, light-hearted competition.

The idea of SWFC was sparked by sophomore Luke Ehle and his dad Robert Ehle. The Ehle family helped fund and spread interest towards an off season, indoor soccer league that would not only help with team chemistry, but also build anticipation towards the 2023 high school spring season. 

“We were bored. Some people didn’t have practice and some [club teams] were kind of winding down and we wanted to have something to do to get hyped before the high school season. So we made the team,” Goremusandu said.

Once the soccer team had  formed, the boys realized they needed a coach. Junior Kuziva ‘Taka’ Goremusandu was up for the challenge and it was a natural fit, as he was coming off a prior injury. 

“Well Luke’s dad had made the team but since I couldn’t play. (and) I wanted to be a part of the team. I became a coach,” Goremusandu said. 

While the SWFC already had an established team history through the boys soccer teams, the CBC started fresh this year and came together for the first time to create not just another YMCA team but one of the greatest the Y has ever seen.  

Current coach of the CBC junior, Arjun Anugole expressed how his team came from humble beginnings, as just a group of friends who wanted to have their chance to make their mark on the court.

“We kind of just created it so that we could have fun playing basketball, because we don’t really want to do that (as a school sport) or have the time to play for Millard North so we just want to play for fun on the ‘Y’ (YMCA) team,” Anugole said. 

As long time friends, it can be hard to put someone in the position of leading the team. The CBC faced the challenge of who would lead as the coach. Star player and junior Arehant Arun expressed the answer was clear from the beginning. 

“For the coaching we wanted a coach that was very harsh and knew how to get the best out of each person. We thought Arjun was the perfect one because we know that he’s not going to hold anything back. He’s going to tell everything straight to our faces. So he was perfect for that,” Arun said. 

While finding a coach was easy, the basketball team then had the task of picking out the perfect name. In the end the team decided to take a more humorous approach. 

“CBC stands for Chandhi Basketball Club. Chandhi is just kinda a fun Malayalam word. It doesn’t really mean anything, it’s just kind of a fun name for us. -We just like saying Chandhi,” Anugole said. 

When it came to game days the CBC had to face the challenging question of who would start off the game. Arun detailed that they had to look at the logistics of each player in order to allow the team to start off strong on the court. 

“For the starting rotation that was mainly based on everyone’s skill sets. Like size and athleticism. We just wanted to put the five best players out there,”Arun said.

The CBC all had big takeaways from this season. For Arun it was the memories and the lessons he learned along the way that he feels he’ll remember off the court too. 

“I learned a lot about teamwork, because this is the first time I’ve actually been on a team and I mean there’s a lot that goes on that I wouldn’t have really thought of before. Like you can watch a bunch of people play basketball, but you don’t really understand everything that goes on behind the scenes of each practice, each game,” Arun said.

The name SWFC is a little more sentimental than humorous. This team wanted to show their MN roots by dedicating their name to the head boys varsity coach, DeAngelis himself. SWFC stands for Sandros Warriors Football Club. 

SWFC also had to make the tough call of who the starters would be. Goremusandu expressed that their method took a rather inventive approach to the matter. 

 “For starters, sometimes we’d do  rock, paper, scissors. If not (rock, paper, scissors), we looked at who played better the game before,” Goremusandu said. 

Senior Tony Rosales, starter of the SWFC felt that this season allowed for the team to connect and learn to have fun with each other. He believes that SWFC was able to break down group barriers and bring boys soccer all together.

“We all grew closer. We used to go out to eat and we would play together. We had a ton of players on the team that play Varsity and JV, it was a mix, so now we all like each other JV and Varsity no matter what we play,” Rosales.

In finding names, picking coaches and playing games, both the SWFC and the CBC have gone through trials and triumphs. Each player learned not only about what it means to be on a team, but what it means to be a team player. All and all, these boys be ballin’.