The GCHS boys basketball team starts their season on the road. In the young season, all nine games haven’t been at GCHS. The Rams host their first home game on December 22nd at 7:00 against non-conference opponent Lake Zurich. 

“We’re road warriors,” said varsity boys basketball head coach, Kosta Kougias.  “The hardest part is just getting on and off a bus and knowing that you’re not going to be at home. The benefit is though, we’re probably going to play a lot more home games is the second part of the season.” 

While the Rams boast a 4-4 record, when taking a deeper dive into the Rams season, the team steps up to challenge a nefarious schedule. All four of the Ram losses come at the hands of opponents with a combined win percentage of .806%, and all four teams play in the IHSA 4A classification. Additionally, 3 out of the 4 losses danced within 4 points. Even in losing, the Rams hold their own. 

The schedule is all a part of the plan for the team to be battle tested for conference play and the playoffs.

“Our schedules is by design”, said coach Kougias.  “We decided to stay in some competitive tournaments and our non-conference schedule is very competitive…Our goal is to play all different types of teams. We know that we’re going to be challenged so that way, we can be prepare for conference and hopefully furthermore in February and March.”

By putting up an average of 56.6 points per game, the offense contributes to the Rams success. Part of their scoring success can be attributed to amount of depth the Rams boast with 9-10 players stepping on the court each game. 

“We have a very deep team,” said senior guard, Daniel Guckenberger. “We have 9-10 guys playing per game, so you know, that’s key for our team. We didn’t really have that last year so much.” 

With so many players active during each game, positive chemistry needs to be present. A team may have the 10 best players, but they will falter if the team has no chemistry with each other. 

“I think we’re getting there,” said senior, Coby Moe. “We’re all learning from each other. And I think that’s what makes this group so special is the fact that you do know we learn from each other each and every day. No matter if we’re juniors and seniors.”