Men’s basketball is revving up for this year’s season. It officially begins with team tryouts on Nov. 11  but for the past two months the team has dedicated its time to preseason workouts two times a week from 5:55 to 7:15 a.m.  in the Welch Activity Center.

Head Coach and Assistant Athletics Director Mr. Jason Delaney said, “The state association, which is the IHSAA, gives us rules. You get two days a week, two hours per session.”

The first day of tryouts are Nov. 11 after school. After that, games start. “Our first scrimmage is a week and a half after the first practice and then two weeks is our first game, so it’s real quick,” Delaney said. 

The team is eager to get started after being voted second of the top five schools in the city. “There are 14 schools in the city,” said Delaney, “so the coaches got together to vote for the preseason, who you think will win it, and the Top 5 teams. We were second and usually Cathedral is Number 1.” Crispus Attucks edged the Irish for the top spot by two votes. 

Delaney remains hopeful and is taking this preseason ranking as a chance to prove the other coaches wrong. “You know, we can’t let other people tell us what we can’t do. For us it’s an exciting challenge. We’ve won three straight (City titles), so we want to make it four straight,” the coach said.

“I’m just really excited about this young group. We have some seniors who we hope will provide some leadership and then we have some young talent who we’re excited about for the next few years as well. So it’s kind of a really nice mixture of kids and they work extremely hard, so we are excited to go out there and show what we can do this year,” Delaney said. 

The home opener is scheduled for Dec. 6 against Center Grove in the Welch Activity Center. The junior varsity tips off at 6 p.m., with the varsity following at 7:30.