Last year during the spring semester, UNCW students Blake Wood and Griffin Templeton started a men’s club basketball team on campus. While they began the season unsure how successful they’d be, the team finished their inaugural year on a positive note.

“We got invited to the ACIS National Tournament at NC State,” said Coach Wood. “Our team got to the sweet sixteen of that tournament before we lost to Akron, but it was good to see we got some wins in our very first year. For only being a club for one semester, we still played great.”

The team laid down a steady foundation in its first year and was able to build on that heading into the national tournament. Their first ever tournament was a success, defeating N.C. State and UNCChapel Hill. This year, however, coaches believe better team chemistry will be key to success.

“I want to see more unity and team building for our club,” Wood said. “I want to see guys eating at Wag together, helping each other with homework, hanging out on the weekends, just some more team unity stuff.”

At the tryouts held last Thursday and Friday, Coach Wood had the players run through some drills to see which participants stood out the most. A total of 41 students showed up Thursday night to try out for the team, which is a huge improvement for the club considering that only 25 showed up to last year’s tryouts. This only makes the competition greater for the team.

“I’m looking to see which guys can step up,” said Wood. “I want to see a leader emerge from the group. I want to see which guys are going to bust their tail and be going after it. I’ve got a lot of guards who look exactly alike, so I’m looking for a leader to emerge from that group.”

On Thursday night, the players ran through some fundamental drills such as ball handling, shooting, and defensive drills. Friday night was more of the same, but with fast break drills added in to see how well the players could do with more complicated workouts. The club team only has 13 jerseys, but Coach Wood said that he will keep 15 players on the roster to travel with him.

The club is aiming to host their first home tournament Saturday, October 13. After a fairly successful rookie season, the club team is looking to be even better the next time around.