Basketball season is here in Southwest Florida! Florida SouthWestern men's and women's hoops have been grinding for weeks at practices and exhibition games and are ready for the season to begin.
"We're excited," said FSW men's head basketball coach Darrin Wallace. "Ready to play against somebody else!"
It's been 222 days since the Buccaneers seasons ended, each in the first round of the FCSAA state tournament in March, both to Northern Florida State. Now, it's a new era of FSW basketball, headlined by two new head coaches, Darrin Wallace and Jamie Fisher.
"[I'm] very excited!" said FSW head women's basketball coach Jamie Fisher. "Sometimes you question as a head coach like, 'hey, are the girls going to respond to new coaching, a new system, a new style?' And they've been doing a great job with that."
There's a lot of "new" on this women's squad with seven newcomers on the roster.
"They've been real receptive, real responsive, and just I can't credit them enough for being hard working and really just believing in the system," said Fisher.
"I feel like we have great team chemistry," said FSW sophomore guard Sarah Owona, one of the five returners. "On and off the court. I feel like we got a lot better these couple of months, we worked hard for it."
Wallace has a similar goal in front of him this season. The new men's head coach spent four years as an assistant on the sidelines and now inherits a team with 11 new faces.
"That's always a challenge, but the two guys we do have returning are good leaders," said Wallace. "So our younger guys are following them."
"The young people, they look up to us and they really want to buy into the program," said FSW returning sophomore guard Ahmed Soumahoro. "I try my best to lead the way so that they know the FSW way for real."
But something that isn't new at FSW is how close knit the teams are.
"It's just a family atmosphere and everybody really wants everybody to be successful here<' said Fisher.
Being the biggest cheerleaders for each other.
"We're in the first row, we cheer them on and they're doing the same with us," said Owona.
"I feel like it makes us better because we know we have support, whether we win or lose," said Soumahoro. "It's just a blessing to have."
The women's season tips off on November 1 on the road facing Trinity Community College, while the men start on November 7 at Lurleen B. Wallace Community College.