As the weather cools down and the leaves start turning, Eagle basketball is heating up as Midnight Madness tipped-off the 2017-18 season last Friday, Nov. 3, after the football game in the main gym.

After coming off a 31-5 record and a disappointing semi-final game lost to Silsbee last year, senior Blaze McMellian and his teammates have formed a “brotherhood” to take a final championship drive.

“As a kid, I have always loved basketball,” McMellian said. “My dad coached my brother, and I would always go to his practices and dribble on the sidelines. It just made it a family tradition.”

This season the Eagles will only have one returning starter, Brandan White.

“A lot of people think that we don’t have good chemistry,” McMellian said. “But coach started us this summer playing in a lot of games and tournaments, and we have learned a lot about each other and what each other is good at.”

Coach Russell Perkins, driven by his love and passion for the game, is going to “try to strive for perfection on every possession” so he and his team can finally get a state championship title. 

“I love how [basketball] can bring a group of kids together, and teach them key lessons on teamwork,” Perkins said. “It’s a game that you can control the ball and if you are good enough to handle everything that is going on, you don’t have to give the ball back.” 

Perkins and the team look to a successful season taken one game at a time.

“The game that we look forward to the most is just whatever is next,” Perkins said. “We always will be where we can play the best that we can that night, so we try not to look too far ahead right now. We just try to work as hard as we can right now so we can be better.”