After winning only one game last season, the Elizabeth Cardinal boys basketball team is ready for a change. With a new head coach and a new off-season workout, the team’s hopes for a winning season are high.

Mike Boss was an assistant coach last year and has now stepped up to the head coach position. He is bringing a new coaching style to the Cardinal team — a program that fits the players.

Last year the team was a three-point oriented team and this year Boss is working for more of an inside-out team.

“We have a junior Mike Safer, who is 6-foot-8, so we really want to use his height to our advantage,” he said. “If he gets double teamed, then we can kick it out and shoot some three-pointers.”

Boss admits it can be challenging to stay positive after a losing season, but for the 2009-10 team positivity is easy. The mature team of three seniors, nine juniors and a couple sophomores are stepping up to the plate as a team focused and ready to compete at all levels of the game.

“We are in better shape than I have ever seen and that is because these guys work hard at practice,” Boss said. “They are a really good group of young kids.”

Boss said as head coach he is not only teaching the boys to be good basketball players, but also working to develop them into respectable young adults.

“We are trying to change the mind-set of the basketball program as a whole from the past,” he said. “Work hard, learn responsibility and win basketball games along the way.”