The Jesuit High School Varsity Basketball Team runs smoothly because of Team Manager Kris Zaki ‘17. Kris has several jobs for the basketball team, including getting the players water, changing bloody jerseys, and running drills with the players. Overall, he prepares the team before and during the game as the coach’s right hand man.

“I think [the team] has a great personality and if you appreciate the team, you will have a lot of fun like I did,” Kris said. “I will miss the team a lot. Managing was always a great thing. It was a really fun environment everyone liked to be around. Coach Rotz and I got a lot closer.”

The team is looking to improve next season from a 15-15 record. They ended with a season worse than they hoped for. They lost in the first round of the playoffs to Folsom High School. Now the team is putting in work to do better next year.

“We are keeping the good and taking what we did bad and changing it,” Kris said. “Everything that we made mistakes on. If it was our defense or our offense or anything like that. We are improving on everything we did bad on.”

With the record of last season, the team knows what it’s like to win and lose. Obviously the team’s goal is to win each game, but when they lose, they don’t let it affect them too much.

“If we lose a game we keep our heads up and wait for the next opportunity,” Kris said. “We don’t hang our heads. We don’t get negative. We improve on what we did good and work on what we did bad.”

Jesuit has many rivals, the biggest one being Christian Brothers High School, but Kris’s favorite matchup is the team down the street.

“The Rio Americano Raiders… Jesuit is always able to defeat them,” Kris said.