Student Spotlight: Reggie Moorman ’25
Rising senior Reggie Moorman ’25 is one of the co-captains of the boys varsity basketball team. After a historic season for the Pythons that ended in a tough loss at the state championship, the basketball team hit the court this summer ready for redemption. Reggie reflects on the past season and shares how he and his team are preparing for the season ahead.
Last March, Paideia men's basketball team made school history as the second team ever to play in the state championship. We became the 1A Division II runner ups to the Mount Vernon School. After the loss, everyone told us we should hold our heads high and be proud of the fact that we made it, but neither me nor my teammates, who put our all into that game, were satisfied with losing, so we still took the loss hard. The people who told us to appreciate the fact that we made it were correct. The work that we put in throughout our journey to state, and the highs that we felt after every playoff win were not diminished by one loss. But standing in that locker room after the game, the only feelings that permeated the room were defeat and helplessness.
Although our coach, who is usually critical of each play, sat us down and told us he was proud of us and that we should be proud of our effort, it still felt like all that work had gone to waste. We felt like losers. As we put our hands in for the last time that season, with tears in our eyes, all of us who were returning told ourselves that we would not allow ourselves to feel that way again.
The road to state starts long before the first game of the season–for us it started on the last day of school this year. In my experience, summer basketball is all about scouting and preparation. Last summer Coach Johnson would remind us nearly every day of how we had the potential to win the state championship. We were a seasoned roster, only two players were new, and Coach treated us as such. While we had the opportunity to prove ourselves and show how much we had grown, both the games and practices felt less like it was summer time and more like the actual season. There was much less time spent on reviewing concepts, because most people had experience practicing with them. Since we all knew each other, and Coach had a pretty concrete understanding of our skill set, everything already felt established. There was a familiarity in every practice and game.
This summer feels much more like a scouting period. Although I feel like we have the potential to win state, just as I did last year, there is more uncertainty this year because we have lost 5 players, and another is not playing summer league. There is much more time spent on building the new players to the same level as returners. Coach has made it clear that it is our responsibility to help them catch up to us because in order for us to win we are going to need everyone on our team. As returners we are also tasked with pushing each other to improve each practice. I believe that by the start of the season we will all be on one accord, poised to repeat our success from last year. Whereas last year the summer was the time for us to prepare for the season and hone our skills so we could reach our full potential, this summer is the time for us to learn to play together, and prove to ourselves and our coaches just how good we can be.
For schools to participate in summer basketball, they have to join a league at a particular school. For the last three years we’ve been in the league at Morrow High School, which includes schools like Morrow, Griffin, Southwest Dekalb, East Coweta, Tri-Cities, Dutchtown, and South Atlanta. We have two games at Morrow per week on Monday and Wednesday; we prepare for those games with two to three practices a week on Thursday, Saturday, and sometimes Tuesday. Later in the summer we play games at LakePoint sports complex called Live Periods, which groups schools in the Southeast region of the United States to play against each other. These games are often attended by college coaches, giving exposure to those of us who want to play basketball in college.
At times, summer basketball is not fun, especially for returners who have to be retaught something that we learned long ago. It is easy to see your friends enjoying their summer, doing what you hoped to be doing, and grow spiteful. It is easy to dismiss it as unnecessary, but I believe that if we did not practice and play as intensely as we did last summer, we would not have made the state championship. Every choice we made last season was crucial in our success, and that started with Coach instilling the confidence in us during summer ball. So, my teammates and I are willing to devote our summers, into building chemistry, and growing as a team, in order to lift the trophy that we all want in March.
