Brotherhood and consistency is the goal for a young Old Colony basketball team
Old Colony's Kyle Boubler goes up for a layup at a game against Sturgis West High School on Friday, Feb. 2. Photos by Mari Huglin
Old Colony team stands for the National Anthem.
Hudson Trahan plays defense in the key. 
Tyler Johnson brings the ball up the court. 
Old Colony goes up for a rebound against Strugis West High School. 
Matt Robitaille weaves through defenders. 
Matt Robitaille cuts to make a play. 
Aiden Deree, left, and Kaiden Westgate, right, look to make a rebound. 
Kaiden Westgate shoots a three pointer. 
Everett Able looks for a rebound. 
Tyler Johnson focuses to make a free throw. 
The Old Colony bench focuses on the game.
Mason Foye brings the ball up the court. 
Kyle Boubler shoots a free throw.
Old Colony's Kyle Boubler goes up for a layup at a game against Sturgis West High School on Friday, Feb. 2. Photos by Mari Huglin
Old Colony team stands for the National Anthem.
Hudson Trahan plays defense in the key.
Tyler Johnson brings the ball up the court.
Old Colony goes up for a rebound against Strugis West High School.
Matt Robitaille weaves through defenders.
Matt Robitaille cuts to make a play.
Aiden Deree, left, and Kaiden Westgate, right, look to make a rebound.
Kaiden Westgate shoots a three pointer.
Everett Able looks for a rebound.
Tyler Johnson focuses to make a free throw.
The Old Colony bench focuses on the game.
Mason Foye brings the ball up the court.
Kyle Boubler shoots a free throw.
ROCHESTER — Even with a young basketball team, Old Colony Regional Vocational Technical High School’s boys basketball team looks for consistency and has eyes set on the state championship.
Head Coach Donald Rodrigues, also known as Boomer, is leading Old Colony’s varsity team for the first year. He previously coached the junior varsity team for four years.
Rodrigues looks for the team to become more consistent this season especially in their full court press, man-on-man defense and speed.
“We always pride ourselves on working hard and being aggressive,” Rodrigues said.
Rodrigues said their toughest competition this year will be South Shore Regional Vocational Technical High School and Bristol-Plymouth Regional Technical High School.
Old Colony’s current record is 8-4 with playoffs coming up at the end of February. With seven seniors graduating last year, a young team and young captains were set to take lead of the tram this year.
“I never want to say that they're young,” Rodrigues said. “I told them at the beginning of the year, I'm never going to use that excuse.”
Aiden Deree, a junior captain, said stepping up has been a big role to fill but satisfying.
“It's a lot of stress, but you know, gotta take a leadership role, lead the team, and get these Ws,” Deree said.
Deree and Tyler Johnson, a sophomore captain, agree that seeing their teammates grow throughout the season is the favorite part of being leaders.
Johnson explained that the strongest part of their team is playing fast and playing an aggressive, full court press defense.
Since they are a smaller in height and younger team, they play fast. The captains are attempting to create community on the team through team dinners, attending other games together and even going out bowling together.
“We're trying to build a great team community,” Johnson said. “We're all brothers.”
All the captains hope they can lead the team to the tournament and win the championship.
Junior captain Kaiden Westgate wants to focus on his rebounds and shooting skills.
“I'm trying to get rebounds, pass the ball, assist people, maybe shoot a little more and make my shots.” said Westgate.
