New Arapahoe boys basketball coach Kevin Boley has been talking a lot about bravery.

Boley, who spent 12 seasons as the head coach at Legend and helped Denver Christian to a 21-5 record last season, was appointed as the Warriors coach in November.

He replaced former coach Troy Pachner, who resigned after what Pachner called an “orchestrated parent campaign.”

Boley took over and following a 76-55 win over Pueblo South on Dec. 20, the Warriors are 5-4 this season.

“We’ve been talking about being brave,” said Boley. “When things are hard and facing hard things, you are just trying to grow as a group and just trying to get better each game.

“We’ve only been here for about five weeks. The kids have done a great job of buying in, working hard, so we’re building confidence and trying to get better within our system.”

Senior Quinten Gardner scored 24 points and junior Rifky Sedhom had 22 in the runaway win over Pueblo South.

“It’s not my first rodeo,” added Boley. “Last year at Denver Christian there was a short learning curve.

“I just appreciated that the kids here embraced us as a coaching staff. They’ve had great attitudes and really tried to work hard and please. It’s been a learning curve for all of us.

“We are a work in progress. We’re still trying to figure out our identify, we’re still trying to clean up the system, we are still trying to define roles. We’re very young so we have to continue to grow and get better.”

Against Pueblo South, Arapahoe jumped to a quick 13-2 lead and then never looked back in collecting the win.

Arapahoe played a non-league game against Heritage on Dec. 22 and has games against Mountain Vista, Rampart and Regis Jesuit before opening Centennial League play on Jan. 16.

“Obviously the Centennial League is an outstanding league,” said Boley. “Even our non-league games were against Continental League teams so it doesn’t get any easier. Part of that is to embrace the challenge.”