The Morgan basketball team has experienced a lot of success in the last couple of years, but this year will have to prepare for major changes.  According to Max Preps, The Huskies, who were the number one seed in the state for Division 4 a season ago, have fallen to 8th, leading into the 2024-25 season. The Huskies will have to learn to rebuild after losing several experienced seniors from last year’s successful team.
This upcoming 2024-25 season brings an all-new starting five as eight seniors graduated from the state-ranked team. Head coach, Frank Rossi, will have to rely on younger players, calling up sophomore Michael Dwake and junior Dylan Cinquino. Dwake has never played varsity and was called up to JV only just four games into the 2023-24 season while Dylan has played in a few varsity games at the end of regulation minutes.
“Coming out of the offseason, it’s become pretty clear that we will be looking to junior Dylan Cinquino and sophomore Michael Dwake for a bulk of our scoring,” said coach Rossi.  It can be difficult for underclassmen to take on this role, but these two have put in the time and the reps over the summer to be in this position.”
The starting five is not confirmed yet, as Coach Rossi has been floating around a few guys. Something more concerning is the lack of varsity experience between the new potential starters. Wyatt Luke (25’) had gotten some minutes in the 23-24 season along with Luke McComiskey (25’) being the seventh man for the Huskies in the 23-24 season. Besides those two, most of the upcoming seniors have had minimal minutes in the 23-24 season.
Leading the charge this season on the court are seven senior leaders Luke McComiskey(Center/Power Forward), Hunter Mancini (Center/Forward), Cole Donnelly (Point Guard), Justin Smith (Forward), Tyshawn Davis (Forward), Griffin Ranaudo ( Shooting Guard/ Small Forward), and Wyatt Luke (Guard). All of them have special aspects they bring to the table. Such as leadership and winning mentality.
Additionally, coach Rossi pointed to the success of his underclassmen during preseason games as a source of encouragement for the season. “Juniors Dylan Cinquino, Will Scoppa, and Nick Maenza along with Sophomore Michael Dwake have had solid offseasons, proving they could compete for minutes,” said Rossi.
As the season opener inches closer, Rossi and the rest of the coaching staff are looking forward to tuning up the roster and preparing the team.
Throughout the beginning of the summer and into the end of fall, the Huskies were able to practice as well as participate in the fall league in order to prepare and get a feel for the game speed and work together with a whole new varsity team. Although the Morgan Huskies did not have their complete varsity unit during the preseason, the Huskies had a gurgling 10-game stretch in the preseason losing all 10.
Rossi said, “I don’t think our expectations really change year after year. Every year, we start the season expecting to compete for a Shoreline Championship.  Over the last 6 years, we have really raised the bar and have been consistently one of the top teams in our league regardless of what our roster looks like.
The Huskies face off against Valley Regional @ Valley Regional on the 17th of December in their first match.  The big games to look out for this season are:
Morgan Vs Cromwell, @ Morgan on December 23rd
Morgan Vs HK, @HK on January 2nd
Morgan Vs Old Lyme, @Morgan on January 10
Rossi is confident that his players are ready to face the challenges of the season, despite the youth. “When guys are competing against each other for minutes, it makes everyone better,” said Rossi. “Some of our league’s top teams like H-K, East Hampton, and Old Lyme have a lot of returning experience, but I really believe in the end we’ll be in the mix come playoff time.”
Rossi has high hopes for this unit although inexperienced he has set the standard during practice last season.
“The expectation for every player who puts on a Morgan jersey is to compete at a championship level every single day.  It is our job as coaches to hold the players to that level. This year will be quite different as we graduated all 5 starters from last year’s 20-win team,” said Rossi.