The Manitou Springs High School basketball teams are finding success with new head coaches Nick Nunley and Gabby Santos.
After last year, both previous coaches decided to part ways with Manitou. Girls coach, Juliana Argyle, resigned and boys coach, Brian Veccio, took an athletic director position at Sierra High School.
MSHS Boys Basketball currently holds the record of 15-6 and 9-4 in league play. Their success has been attributed to relationships, growth and victory according to Nunley. “Every player in our program knows I care about them, and I know they care about me too. It’s special. From the first practice until now, I’ve seen tremendous growth from every player in our program towards becoming a better basketball player and a better person overall,” Nunley said. “Lastly, we have had a decent amount of wins, and that helps players buy into our program and our culture.”
While there were three factors mentioned, Nunley believes that the core value is relationships. “This is my 10th year in coaching, and I’ve always seen teams be more successful when there are solid relationships between players, and also between the players and coaches,” Nunley said.
Nunley also believes in hard work, and that it contributes to the future of the program. “My plans for future teams is to continue to grow as basketball players, and to get 1% better every day,” Nunley said.
The MSHS Girls Basketball team is also finding success this season compared to last, as they are 10-11 and 7-6 in league, and last year they were 8-15 overall. Their success has been boiled down to breaking down the game and things they need to work on into smaller parts. “We have spent a lot of time breaking down the different parts of the game we needed to grow in and working each game to add those new components,” Santos said. “The success has come as the team has become confident in their ability and has learned to play together.”
A junior at MSHS, Aylin Gomez, added that Santos has changed the program this year and focuses on helping players specifically with what they need to succeed. “She helps us more individually on skills,” Gomez said.
While focusing on individual skill development, the main value of the team this year has been teamwork. “Like how we show up for each other and how roles may change but we’re still working towards a common goal is how we can find success,” Santos said.
Each team believes that they can make the playoffs and make deep runs. The boys team particularly has high expectations. “We can go as far as we want to. We are playing really good basketball right now and on the right night, we can beat anyone,” Nunley said.
Recently, the team beat Lamar High School 55-49. Lamar was 15-3 overall, 9-1 in league, and ranked as the number four team in the state. Ashur Lavigne (12) said it was a big game. “The team is very excited, it was a pretty big upset. We did the same last year and we knew we’d do it again this year,” Lavigne said. “All week we were prepping for Lamar. We had other games, but we really knew the biggest team that week would be Lamar.”
Lavigne agreed with Nunley about how the team can beat anyone on the right night. “We’re not all all stars on the team, but we definitely do have team chemistry. I mean, I know eight out of the people on the roster I’ve grown up with,” Lavigne said. “It’s just the team chemistry that makes us motivated and want to win it all.
The MSHS girls also believe that they can win in the playoffs this year as they have lost in the first round of the playoffs the past four years. Santos thinks that if the team keeps growing and digs deep they can make a run. “Our plan for the rest of the year is to keep growing and really focus on making sure we peak at the right moment,” Santos said. “There is a lot of potential for this team that we can still unlock if they dig as deep as possible.”
Brooklyn Sheffield (11) thinks that the team can get over the hump and win a playoff game this year. “Reaching the second round of playoffs is a really good reachable goal for us. It’s not going to be easy, but I think if we fight we can do it,” she said.
Both teams have playoff aspirations and look to have deep runs. They both rely on their teamwork and chemistry in order to take them there. “The main reason we’d go far is because we all love each other,” Lavigne said.
