5:45am, Oak Park High School sits quietly —no students, no teachers, and usually no athletes. Yet the men's basketball team was in the gym putting in hard work to start the upcoming 2025-2026 basketball season. Hard work and dedication are skills that head coach Sherron Collins has been preaching this basketball season.

This will be his 3rd season as head coach, and he is looking to win a back-to-back state championship. In his first year as head coach, he led the team to a 27-5 record and a fourth-place finish in the state playoffs. Following last year's disappointment, he led the team to a 31-1 record, with the lone loss to North Crowley, an out-of-state team from Fort Worth, Texas, and then led the team to a state championship.

Losing most of his starters from last year, Collins had this to say: "After losing 6 seniors, we lean on our two returning players, Josh Kori and Adam Tanner, and we also got three transfers, that's going to help us fill in those voids, so we are back strong and have another chance to make a run." Not being worried about this new team, he plans to keep the "Same blueprint; hard work, hard defense, outplaying everybody, and scoring points."

The highlight matchup of this season will be the second game when they face Staley at home on December 5th . "I'm looking forward to playing Staley just because of the Rivalry, and they're going to be a good team," Collins said. On a three-game win streak and a 12-14 record against them since 2011, this matchup already has the look of being a classic and one you won't want to miss.

With all the hard work, sweat, and tears the team had put in so early, it's heating up to be a great season with many playoff hopes.