The Cypress Creek Cougars boys and girls basketball team kicked off their season with their fifth-annual Dunk or Treat event.
The Dunk or Treat event is a way to bring together these players’ families, friends and supporters and introduce them to the teams and their upcoming seasons.
“It’s a kick off pep rally to kick off basketball season,” Girls Basketball Coach Jennifer Alexander said. “We will have [Raising] Canes and Bahama Bucks selling food, doing giveaways, all up and down Main Street.”
The team originally got this idea from Duke University’s Midnight Madness, when the basketball team opens up the upcoming season with their first official practice and fans from everywhere can come in and see the players in action.
At Cy Creek, the Cougars opened the event up to everyone and many different clubs and organizations joined in. Booths ranged from face painting to making Halloween decorations and playing games.
“There’s a lot of planning and a lot of people, and people volunteering who will come out to the main hallway to give out candy to kids and play little games with them,” Boys Basketball Coach Daniel Troquet said. “We want the community to come out and watch their teams play. We want to get the study body involved and everyone else.”
The team opened up the doors to their gym to introduce all their players on the team and announced them with them coming out of the famous Cougar head. The Silvies and Step Team also performed.
¨This is a great event to bring all of the families together, definitely showing their Cougar pride, exactly showing what being a part of the Cypress community is all about,” Associate Principal Frank Fraley said.
¨It brought us all together; we had a lot of fun together and I feel like when you have fun with a lot of people it builds chemistry and trust with them,” Senior and Basketball player Amir Berryman said. “I feel like it gave us a good start on our energy. We have a feel of the community that’s with us to help us build our games.”
But all good times come to an end. This is both Jenna-Mi Tran and Mika Neri-Kanai’s last years at Creek. They both have been together since the start of their freshman year, trying out for the team together.
¨I´m going to miss the crowd and my family always coming to games and supporting us,¨ Neri-Kanai said.
¨I’m going to miss the hustle, the energy and my family.¨ Tran said.