COLORADO SPRINGS — Sand Creek boys basketball is in their fourth year under head coach Jeff Cooks and they are finally seeing all of their hard work pay off.
With just five games remaining in the regular season, the Scorpions have posted a 15-3 overall record and a perfect 6-0 record in their league.
One thing Coach Cooks has stressed since the beginning of the off-season is having fun.
"It's just a party all the time with us. Usually at practice, we are bumping music. I just had to have a conversation with my guys before we started practice about goofing off in pregame,” said Cooks. “Sometimes they can't look at me without laughing. They love being together, they love their coaches, we love them, and it's just family."
The team is led by five seniors who have been through the ups and downs of the program together.
Elijah Brotherns compared this season to the years prior and said they are actually having fun this year opposed to just going out and trying to win games.
Matthew Starks reflected on the seasons leading up to his senior year and said the program was struggling but he is glad that he and his fellow seniors stuck together to help elevate it. Having gone through the rough stretches has allowed them all to appreciate the success they are seeing now.
A year ago Sand Creek started the season on a five-game losing streak. This year they have strung together win streaks of five and seven, doing so with their own flare.
Sand Creek plays a style of defense that forces teams into numerous turnovers, and those turnovers lead to flashy passes and rim-rocking dunks that get the whole bench up off their feet.
Other times when they are not throwing down flashy dunks, they are shooting the lights out from behind the arc which has helped them to average around 65 points per game.
With the program trending in the right direction, coach Cooks has set a daily goal for his team and it serves as the ultimate test of their growth.
"Our number one pursuit is what we call B-V-O-S, best version of self. So every day that is what we are pursuing and we are saying what does that get us. We are going to try to be the best we can be and see what that gets us."
Cooks says that they have not attached that goal to a number of wins or necessarily winning the state title, but the idea is to pursue that goal and see how far it can take them.
_____
Watch KOAA News5 on your time, anytime with our free streaming app available for your Roku, FireTV, AppleTV and Android TV. Just search KOAA News5, download and start watching.
