Following a losing season last year, the RHS boys varsity basketball team hopes to come out this year with more wins.

However, the team will rely on young underclassmen due to the graduation of their best two scorers from the 2015-16 season, Ben Wiebusch and Essex Thompson.

Last year, the Rams lost 66-48 at home to RM. The team had a below-average performance last season, as their overall win percentage was .217, meaning they won five out of their 23 games (including scrimmages).

The team plays the Rockets twice this season, and they hope to showcase their improvement.

After a pitiful 2-6 football season, the Rockville “Inferno” is looking for a more exciting and winning season.

Junior guard Anthony McClean and first year varsity player is looking forward to this upcoming season.

“I expect this season to be great because we’ve been working hard in the off season,” McClean said.

This is the team’s first season without previous varsity head coach Steven Watson. This year is new varsity head coach Todd Dembroski’s first time at RHS. He has stepped in and hopes to apply his previous basketball experience to lead the team to a winning season.

“My hope for our team this year is improve everyday we are on the court. We have a young team with a lot of new faces, so my hope is that we will come together as a team and continue to get better everyday,” Dembroski said. “We want to be playing our best basketball come playoff time.”

The team lost nine seniors from last year, when they already had only 16 players on the squad. As a result, they look to add many new and young underclassmen to the team. Last year, there were 15 players on junior varsity (JV), and 10 of them were freshmen. This is looking to be a very young team in future upcoming seasons.

Junior Gabrielle Astorga moved from Florida to RHS last year. This is her first basketball season with the student-cheering-section, the “Inferno.”

“In this school, I think that they’re a lot more serious about the basketball program compared to my old school in Florida,” Astorga said. “There’s a lot more focus on JV players that will move up to the varsity level, which is great because it develops players and their skill set… Unlike my old school that only had a large varsity team and a small JV team that coaches and players did not take seriously.”