Advanced and Beginning Basketball is a course that attracts students for a variety of reasons. The class is taught by the head men’s basketball coach, Justin Piergrossi, and it occurs on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 11:10a.m. to 12:00p.m.

To begin, the students form into multiple single file lines and then each row, one at a time, does a running exercise, and then it is the next row’s turn. The running exercises have students running forwards, backwards, and doing quick turns. After about ten minutes, it is time for the students to do a few quick shooting and passing exercises, such as lay-ups. Upon completion of these drills, the students are split up into two groups, with each group on a different half of the court.

Coach Piergrossi stays with one of the groups and selects two team captains. From there, these team captains continue selecting players until there are two different teams. While this process is taking place, the students on the other side of the court have already commenced a game of basketball. It doesn’t take long, however, for every student in the class to be running, grabbing and shooting frantically.

The students who were on the side with team captains, a little bit more than half the class, are the ones who are not really interested in joining the basketball team, such as Jimmy Kong, a student at Skyline and an undecided major. When asked his reasons for taking the class he replied that he wants to better his basketball skills and to get the exercise it provides. He also said that he is taking the course in order to get the G.E. requirements. Kong’s favorite things about the class are that:

“(You get to) run a game. It’s fun. The people are cool.”

The action was pretty much non-stop, with students really getting into the spirit, until the coach blew the whistle. There were some impressive blocks and some outstanding shots. Just seeing the concentration and emotion in their faces is proof-positive that all the students have a love for basketball and are happy to be in the class. Lorenzo Hockaday is glad to be in the class because it is the closest he can get to actually playing on the basketball team. He was on a basketball team over the summer, but now his school schedule conflicts with being on a team, so this is perfect for him.

Anyone who watches a class will notice right away the discrepancy in the amount of males to the amount of females. There are only five girls! Hockaday commented on this seemingly skewed demographic:

“A lot of people want to impress Coach P.” This, he says, is why there are mostly boys, because many share some interest in eventually playing on the team here at Skyline.

So, if you are looking to looking to join a basketball team, to hone your skills as a basketball player, or just a fun way to fill your G.E. requirements, you need to look no further than the Advanced and Beginning Basketball course.