It’s hard to imagine that it had been more than twenty years since the Warriors’ basketball team played a postseason game.

Nearly everyone if not all of the players were either not born yet or they were just learning how to speak.

As has seemed to be the case with so many Warrior athletic teams over the past two seasons, the men’s basketball team has made tremendous leaps and bounds, going 20-10, coming within seconds of winning a conference championship and clinching a playoff berth.

Although they lost to Imperial Valley in their playoff opener last Wednesday night, the Warriors are not losers by any stretch of the imagination.

They are a good basketball team with the potential to be a great basketball team, and looking back at their 11 loses, only one was by double digits while five of those losses were by three points or less.

Although standout guards Joey Knox and Marcellus Cullors are both sophomores and they could be playing somewhere else next year, the team will still be led by forwards Chuck Gray and Kris Lawrie when the season starts up again in the fall.

After the game, Knox said that he was happy to contribute in putting the Warriors’ basketball program back on the map.

After a long string of seasons that ended in disappointment and losing records in which players and coaches had entertained questions as to improve during the off-season, this time the question will be how to make it a championship team.

There is no doubt that when tip off comes in November, this team along with a few additions, will be the favorite to win its conference, and since the returning players know that this team can reach the playoffs, their motivation to lead this team will be at an all-time high.

Anyone who have followed the Warriors’ athletic programs for the past couple of years knows that the spotlight has been on football, baseball and women’s volleyball because those programs have built a solid winning foundation.

Now, it’s time for the basketball program to take its rightful place beside them.

No one ever considers that losing a game can be beneficial to a team, but the Warriors’ loss at home last Wednesday can be seen as a silver lining to an otherwise gloomy ending to a magical season.

Indeed, there will be an eager anticipation to next season and an excitement to how great this team can be after the recruitment process takes place this off season.

There is renewed sense of hope for the basketball team, and also there is a hope that it finally can string together a number of winning seasons and win a championship or two in its short-term future.

With coach Mike Fenison leading the way and a solid core of players in Cullors and Lawrie returning next year, the future of this team is brighter than it has been for sometime.

Basketball fans saw the maturation of the Warriors this past season, now its time to witness the transformation of greatness.