Senior Max Marzina has had a basketball in his hand nearly his whole life.
Marzina’s older siblings played, and his dad coached teams, so he was always surrounded by basketball. He decided to start going to practices with his dad for something to do, Marzina said.
“All of my other three siblings played basketball, so I was always in a gym growing up,” Marzina said.
This is when his passion for basketball started.
“Basketball means everything to me,” Marzina said. “I have made so many decisions and sacrifices in life just for basketball.”
Marzina totaled about 270 points last year as a point guard for the varsity basketball team. He has been a starter for several years and is one of two starters left from last year’s team, which was the first Baldwin team to win the section title since 1986.
This experience has gained him a lot of wisdom on the court, which he shares with the first-year starters.
Marzina’s teammate, sophomore Sadiq Anderson, a first-year starter, said Marzina brings great leadership qualities to the team.
“He tells me where to go, what to do, and how to do it,” Anderson said.
Not only does Marzina help Anderson on the court, but he also sometimes takes him to work out together on the side.
“I try to talk to him through it a lot because I’ve been in his shoes,” Marzina said.
Junior Evan Golvash agreed that Marzina is a natural leader.
“He motivates people when they’re doing something wrong.” Golvash said. “He lets us know what we’re doing wrong.”
Basketball-related skills are not the only qualities he brings to the team, as Marzina also brings good humor, Golvash said.
Marzina is very involved and passionate about this sport, and he does not plan on stopping anytime soon. He plans on playing basketball in college, yet he is unsure of where he wants to go.
“I have continued to play because I want to play in college, but not only that, I’ve put so much work into the game that if I gave it up, it would be all for nothing,” Marzina said.
Marzina feels that his high school career has been very successful.
The boys basketball team has made it to the playoffs every year of Marzina’s high school career so far. Marzina said that with Baldwin having been unsuccessful until a few years ago, the boys team felt that things needed to change.
“The last couple of seasons have felt great,” Marzina said. “Baldwin has been down in years prior, and we felt like we could change the culture, and we successfully did.”
For Marzina, it felt terrible to get knocked out of the WPIAL playoffs in the first round last year, and he is hungry for more this year. While he does not have any personal goals for this season, his goal for the team is to win the section title again and make it further in the playoffs than last year.
While some people have predicted that the team will fall off this year, Marzina has faith that this will be a strong season. The team thrived on veteran leadership last year, so this year will be an adjustment after losing so many leaders.
“We will be successful this year. Many people are counting us out now because we lost nine seniors, but that just fuels us more to prove everyone wrong,” Marzina said.
