Loyola has reinstated its junior varsity basketball team in a new development program that increases the team’s younger players experience in games on the college level.
    The last time Loyola had a junior varsity team was in 1972, when the NCAA had a rule, which stated freshman students were not allowed to play for varsity basketball.
    The Loyola Wolfpack intercollegiate athletic program now competes in the Division I National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, as a member of the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference.
    “It’s an opportunity for men who want to play at the collegiate level and it puts them in game situations… it’s not just a bunch of walk-ons, even scholarship guys play on J.V.,” Michael Giorlando, head basketball coach and director of wellness and athletics said.
    For the 2009 season the junior varsity team, led by Richard Hinton will play three more games this year and currently have a record of 0-3. However, the return of the team means more than it appears on paper.
    “The J.V. allows them to play more minutes,” said Hinton; “it gives them a chance to run against the competition.” 
    The team is a way for the coaching staff to give Loyola freshman and sophomore players more experience in real life game scenarios, giving them an edge come game time during the varsity schedule.
     Chris Joseph, political science sophomore stated, “You get a lot more exposure, you’re not nervous; not frustrated when feeling pressure.”
    Since there is no restriction on varsity players playing in J.V. games, all but two of the players in the Loyola program are on the roster for both teams, causing the players to gain more time on the court, therefore, resulting in more practice time.
    “It gives them an opportunity to improve for the varsity games,” said Giorlando.
    This has been built team chemistry, causing more unity between the underclassmen and upperclassmen players and supplying them with more time to interact on the court together, according to Corey Gray, biology sophomore.
    By all 19 players working as one unit, in both practices and games, Loyola basketball has gone through some success in its varsity game play this season.
    With the varsity team’s success being the main goal for the coaching staff, the team has a current winning record of 5-2 and look to face Nicholls State University on Dec. 3.
    There are also talks within Loyola’s wellness and athletics department  of extending the season of the Junior Varsity team to eight games next year, giving them two more games in order to gain future experienced players.
    “Playing in the J.V. games helps me learn the offense and get used to playing with my teammates,” Jeffrey Coote, a biology freshman who plays for the junior varsity team, said.
    “Having a J.V. team will help the basketball program because it allows the underclassmen to get more game experience and gives us a chance to practice running our offense against players we don’t see everyday,” Coote said.
    The team faces Baton Rouge Community College next on Dec. 7.

Michael Caruso can be reached at [email protected]