By Matt Browning

The Elyria Christian boys basketball team has been chosen as the Visit Wichita Team of the Month for November. The Eagles went 14-7 last season and were the runner-up in the Wheat State League.

This season, Elyria returns three key pieces from last season in Ty Romero, Johnny Unruh and Caleb Laney.

“We have an opportunity to be competitive,” head coach Zach Goodrich said. “One area that we want to get better throughout the season is building disciplined habits. I believe being another year older and having some key returning pieces, that should be a possibility for us.”

The objective is to take lessons from last season’s difficult finish, where the Eagles lost early in the postseason, and make this season different.

“As one of my assistant coaches mentioned to me earlier this month, we want to stack good days of practice on top of each other to build good habits,” Goodrich said. “It will take some time to identify roles, as we are still a heavy underclassmen team, but the lessons we learned at the end of last season will hopefully accelerate the process. We want to get better every day, and hopefully throughout the season make the improvements necessary to be the best team we can come February.”

Playing a difficult schedule is something Goodrich hopes benefits his team in February.

“Our schedule will help us prepare for postseason competitions as we have 2A traditional powers Berean Academy, Moundridge, and Sedgwick that will present challenges of being disciplined and playing sound basketball for 32 minutes,” Goodrich said. “It is always enjoyable to see our teams improve throughout the season, and it will be another season of competitive contests night in and night out in the Wheat State League.”