Even coming off of their highly successful 2014-2015 season where they went all the way to the regional finals, Monsignor Edward Pace High School’s boys basketball team has stayed busy in the summer with trips to universities across the Southeast and the basketball Spartan Boot Camp in June.
All of this summer activity is common for the Spartans, according to their head coach Anthony Serro. He explained that the camps and university tournaments allowed for off-season adjustments after the graduation of key players and for new players to get acclimated to their team.
The Spartans basketball team was invited for the second straight year to a camp held by Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. After touring the Stetson campus and having several of its players take part in an elite camp, the team played in a weekend-long tournament, winning several games against teams from high schools across the Southeastern United States.
After returning home, the team began running two weeks of the basketball Spartan Boot Camp for campers ages 6 through 15. Pace coaches and the players themselves taught campers and led them through fun basketball activities, ending each day with a prayer of “Our Father” and chanting “Family!” together. The camp, now in its fourth year, has always attracted many passionate young campers. “I’ve never seen a group of kids who wanted to play as much as these campers these past two weeks,” said Serro.
The Spartans hit the road again for a camp at the University of South Carolina from June 13 to 14. On the drive up, they stopped at the University of North Florida to get a campus tour and meet with the UNF basketball coaching staff. At USC, the team won numerous games in a tournament stacked with elite high school teams invited by the university.
The final destination for the players was Gainesville for an invite-only camp at the University of Florida. The Spartans learned about the history of the two-time NCAA National Champion Gators before playing in their last tournament of the summer. The Spartans ran wild on other high school teams, making it all the way to the tournament finals for their best performance of the off-season.
The Spartan players say they have already seen the fruits of their summer labor pay off. “Everyone on the team is getting time to shine,” said Pace junior Zackery Alvarez. “We’re playing more as a team.”
After all of this hard work, Serro says that he expects his 2015-2016 team to have another great season and lead the state of Florida in scoring for a third straight year.