Senior Parker Barnes was a key player on the Stevens intramural league basketball team “The Boonies” this past season. It was a rebuilding year for Barnes and his teams switching players out and adding new ones in.
Despite the changes, Barnes feels that his team underperformed this year, posting a 6-2 record after going undefeated last year, especially after adding many superstar talents in the offseason. The Boonies dropped key role players such as Jacob Decker, Aiden Sharp, and Bryant Thaler, as well as losing Bryce Swanson to the Stevens basketball team, and replacing them with former basketball players turned intramural superstars Cael Meisman and Kaleb Krein.
Barnes believes these two key additions have been their most impactful players this season, Meisman, a
6’5” presence in the post who is able to grab a lot of rebounds, and Krein, the team’s top scorer and a great three-point shooter who Barnes described as “A certified bucket getter”.
The belief early in the season was that those two players would help the Boonies win this year’s championship tournament even after a disappointing season. Barnes was “a little nervous” heading into the tournament, but when asked how he feels about their chances, he drew comparisons to the Kansas City Chiefs, who performed under par in the regular season then won the super bowl this year.
Barnes thinks that the Boonies biggest threat is “definitely The Bricks”, the team who ruined the undefeated season and beat them on a buzzer beater in the championship game last year, as well as accounting for one of The Boonies two losses in the regular season. Even though Barnes feels that The Bricks are The Boonies biggest threat, it is also the team that Barnes wanted to face the most, for a chance at sweet revenge after last year’s heartbreaking championship game.
The tournament wrapped up on Sunday February 25th. The Boonies entered as the 2nd seed with their 6-2 record and the Bricks took the 1st seed after going undefeated. The re-match would never happen, and The Bricks finished the tournament as back-to-back champions winning their final game 61-27.
