By Abby Chong and Bailey Kreszswick, Staff Reporters

Shoes squeaking, fans yelling as Coach Forcine starts his career with a win against Holy Ghost Prep on December 12. After Coach Troy’s resignation over the summer, Sean Forcine stepped up to take his place. 

Forcine graduated from Conestoga in 2001, and later started volunteering for coach Mike Troy. For the past 16 years, Forcine has worked at Conestoga as both the JV basketball coach and boys’ varsity assistant. Forcine worked closely with the previous head coach, Mike Troy, before he stepped down, paving the way for Forcine to rise as boys’ varsity head coach in August 2022.

“We pay a lot of attention to our team defense, we do a lot of team work exercises in order to get to know each other better and gain trust in each other,” Forcine said.

Forcine has worked hard to create a strong culture and trusting environment within the team. His motivational attitude inspires the players to continue to work hard and continue to have a love for the game.

“The wins can come eventually. But really, we’re focused on just building a good culture and attitude is probably the biggest part of that,” boys varsity captain Brendan Styer said.

Playing on varsity since freshman year, Styer loves Forcine’s intensity and his ability to always push the players to play their best at every practice and game. 

“[He is] really trying to instill a new culture and attitude aspect, like always having a next play mentality and keeping your head up and really doing the dirty work,” Styer said.

Forcine’s work ethic shines through as he teaches his players not only basketball skills but life skills as well. He highlights ten specific principles that each player has not only learned about from their peers but also memorized.

“Once all the teammates have embraced these principles, it really sets us up to build a strong foundation based around staying positive at times of adversity, staying humble, trusting each other, getting the most out of every drill and opportunity,” Forcine said.

To illustrate these important life lessons further, Forcine has implemented an award system for players who continue to improve and show up to practices and games with a positive attitude

“Every time we bring the team in, it’s always ‘attitude on 3, 1-2-3 attitude’. This has been our way throughout the whole season. And we try and focus on [that] during the games,” boys varsity captain Peter Costigan said.

The community has been a huge inspiration for the team as students and fans help push the team to a new level of playing. Forcine hopes to continue to build the atmosphere at basketball games and encourage student involvement

“The more student and fan participation at games, the better. The students really help push us and get us to an extra gear. We’re motivated by their energy.” Forcine said, “We strive to put a fun brand of basketball on the court for everyone to enjoy and be entertained by, so the more student involvement, the better, more fun atmosphere it’s going to create on the court and hopefully lead to a more successful future for our basketball team.”

Abby Chong can be reached at [email protected].

Bailey Kreszswick can be reached at [email protected].