By MADELINE REIDA

Staff writer

Coach Robert Kyle has a close group of seniors and juniors showing the ropes to three freshmen on the boys basketball team for Peabody-Burns this year.

“They’re supposed to be my leaders,” he said. “I’ve got five good seniors this year.”

Philip Young, Thomas Smith, Jake Partridge, Alex Caldwell, and Hunter Navrat have played together throughout high school. Their experience makes teamwork one of the team’s strengths.

Kyle encouraged the seniors to pass that on to nervous new players at twice-daily practices. Assistant coaches encouraged them when they came up to a wet towel to dampen their shoe soles.

The team placed fourth in its district last year with a 12-8 record. This year, Kyle wants to work on keeping hold of the ball and improving defense while working new players into the team.

“If we can get our defense up, our offense will take care of itself,” he said.

The team’s first game will be Friday at Herington.

“Usually, we’re both pretty evenly matched, so it should be a pretty good ball game,” Kyle said. “It’s the first game, so there’ll be first-game jitters.

“We’ll just get all the kinks worked out.”