In his youth, Jeremiah Cofie admittedly tried several sports. Yet, there was something about basketball.

“I started playing basketball when I was around 11,” recalled Cofie. “I was always interested in sports as a kid. I involved myself in anything. Basketball just happened to be the sport that caught my eye the most.”

Head coach Eric Snyder is glad that Cofie took the basketball route. He and fellow senior Matt Fotta has handled the spot for the Rough Riders this season.

The Roughies struggled to start the season but have recently found their winning ways. They are 12-9 overall and fourth in the District 11 3A rankings as of this week.

Despite the early losses and the overall down and up season, Cofie didn’t see any letdowns.

“The season started off rough for us,” said Cofie earlier this season. “We lost multiple crucial close. But, we are more confident than ever in each other, excited for the future, and even more excited about the possibility of the playoffs.

“We think we can make it far in the postseason, and that’s all that matters as the season progresses.”

Fotta sees the close games as a team bonding process.

“The first few games of the season brought us closer together,” stressed Fotta. “We know all these games we lost by a few points were our fault, and we were not outplayed.

“We are a very close group and extremely confident in each other. We don’t care about what people say about us, our record, our school.”

Fotta is confident his team’s best basketball is still ahead.

“We’re focused on winning a championship,” he added. “We all know everything is still ahead of us. We’re going to keep competing and working until we accomplish our goals.”

Snyder saw a past victory over Pen Argyl as a vital one and a possible springboard for the future.

“The Pen Argyl win was big,” said Snyder. “Every game is important now for us since out auspicious start. We needed to win convincingly, and we did.”