Fossil Ridge High School has been known for having great boys basketball teams, and this year should be no different. Behind boys basketball is Coach Matt Johansen, who is in his 33rd year coaching and his 20th at Fossil.

Players are confident the team will reach the state tournament and be one of the top teams in the conference. The path there will be made in part from all the work they put in through the offseason, junior Elias Hughes said. 

“We have done a lot of preseason camps, a few things in state, and after last season we did a few things out of state,” Hughes said. “Outside of that we hang out together, and practice, a lot of practice.”

The team also benefits from being together for the last two years, senior Walker Shields said.

“We have done everything from summer ball, fall ball and open gyms which have led us to where we are now,” Shields said. 

All of the off season work has taken a part in preparing this team for the season. 

“The team’s looking really solid. We have a good amount of seniors that know what they’re doing, so I have a lot of trust in my team,” senior Cayden Clagett said.

Confidence aside, it is still very early in the season and the team has a lot of work to do, said Johansen.

“Defensively, we haven’t spent a lot of time talking about it, working on it and that’s new for me since I am a defense first kind of guy,” Johannsen said. “That’s what has to improve, and I’m sure it will.”

This team has a lot of work to do since they have a gauntlet of a season coming up.

“We’re playing some really tough non-conference games, probably the toughest since I have been here. And I don’t apologize for that,” Johannsen said.

Johannsen has one main goal for the team.

“When people talk about goals, a lot of times they think about the number of wins, and certainly that’s a part of it,” Johannsen said. “I want the teammates to be genuinely excited for one another, I want the coaches to look forward to being at practice and I want the parents to look forward to coming to games.”

The athletes are definitely excited about the season but they are looking forward to one team in particular.

“Rocky [Mountain High School], they’ve been talking a lot,” Hughes said of the rivalry with the crosstown team that has been building up over the years. 

“They beat us last year in a pretty tight game when they shouldn’t have, out of all the games last year that one pissed me off the most,” Clagett said.

These rivalry games bring the best out of teams and have made Fossil ready for the upcoming season.

“I feel that the team is looking the most prepared we’ve been so far being together,” Shields said.