The retirement of long time head boys’ basketball coach Dick Wickline made way for a new era beginning this winter.

The newly hired head coach, Jason Eldredge, brings a fire and passion for the game of basketball that has this year’s team excited for the upcoming season.  From their grueling offseason workouts to their intense open gym scrimmages, Coach Eldredge is displaying to his players that hard work and dedication will lead to a better result on the basketball court.

“I came in with a non-biased attitude,” said Coach Eldredge.  “The harder you work, the more you will succeed.”

What has players and students so excited about this new acquisition is without question Coach Eldredge’s past accomplishments.  He is a two-time state champion as head coach at Freedom High School and he hopes to bring that kind of success to West Springfield as well.

“I want the school to be excited for this team,” said Eldredge. “The kids in this school are spirited and as a whole care about their sports teams.” 

It is safe to say that in the last few years the boys’ basketball team has not had nearly the amount of success that they would have liked.  Despite finishing last in the Patriot District for the last two years the combination of this years’ talent and experience along with a new basketball coach has already brought in a host of new players and a new positive attitude.

“I want to create an environment that has us [looking] forward to Tuesday and Friday nights,” said Eldredge. 

At last years’ tryouts only about 20 players tried out for the Varsity team.  There are already about 40 players attending the basketball team’s off season workouts.  The basketball team’s hard work is on display on a daily basis.  They can be seen running stadiums over and over again with Coach Eldredge following closely behind iPod in hand and screaming words of encouragement.  Coach Eldredge’s participation in the offseason workouts with his players makes it obvious to his team the dedication and devotion he already has to this program. 

“Coach Eldredge is going to put us in the right direction,” said senior shooting guard Divya Goel.   “He brings his experience from Freedom and that will help us win a lot of games.”