The Prospect girls varsity basketball team will see a change this year as they will begin their season on Nov. 16 with 12-year high school basketball coach, Matthew Weber.

Weber has had plenty of experience as a high school basketball coach as he started off coaching boys basketball at Wheeling High School for five years, then moving to assistant girls coach for a year, to then become the girls varsity head coach for the past six years there. 

Weber is no stranger to Prospect as he has been the assistant football coach for the past three years. However, this is his first year as a teacher at Prospect, and as girls basketball head coach.

“I had an opportunity to transfer within the district…,” Weber said. “And since I had already made some relationships within Prospect, the opportunity opened up and I took advantage of that opportunity.”

Weber’s main focus for the upcoming season is to build relationships with his players. He believes that it is a crucial factor to having a good team. 

“I love coaching because I love building relationships,” Weber said. “I love to try and help my players reach their goals, not only individual goals, but team goals.”

So far the team has held some meetings and the players were very impressed with Weber’s focus on making sure the whole team was on the same page. 

“Weber was saying everything we all wanted to hear,” Junior Summer Srodulski said. “He was telling us his plan for the season and it sounded like exactly what we wanted to hear, and he asked us for our input which shows us he wants it to be our team not his.”

The team was not only inspired by Weber’s style of bonding with his players, but also his great passion for having the best possible season the team could have.

“No one will ever find a coach more hardworking than him,” Srodulski said. “That really made us all happy because having a coach [who is] really passionate and invested in our success and growth makes us want to buy in more.”

As the season will begin, Weber hopes that they all go in with the same mindset that they can all reach their goals through hard work and dedication. 

“Whatever they want to accomplish,” Weber said. “If they believe they can accomplish it, then the sky’s the limit on what they can achieve.”