On December 5th and 6th, the Morgan boys basketball team hosted their highly anticipated tryouts for athletes trying to secure a spot on the varsity team. This year the basketball team has a lot of spots up for grabs for younger players as Morgan is returning zero starters from the prior year. This is a first for Morgan, as they have benefitted from returning leadership in each of the last several seasons.
The basketball team, led by coach Rossi, started tryouts with defensive drills to evaluate players’ skills on the defensive end of the floor. Followed by some team oriented drills focusing on both sides of the ball, trying to help players decision-making skills on both the offensive and defensive end.
Coach Rossi, who is entering his 7th year coaching at Morgan, said, “This year we don’t have room to make mistakes. Last year we made a lot of mistakes. A lot of turnovers and bad passes, but a lot of that was cleaned up since we had some of the best players in the conference [Jack Nye, Ryan Donadio, and Robby Estabrook].This year I don’t know if we have one of those guys this year, not to say we can’t have one of them, someone just needs to step up to fill that role.”
Tryouts continued with some four on four team drills where restrictions were placed on the offense so that the defense could practice specific things such as preventing the offense from getting to the basket, or preventing them from shooting jump shots and forcing them to dribble the ball.
“We want to continue the energy we had last year during practices,” said senior captain Wyatt Luke. “We are getting there but more needs to be done. We need to get more comfortable as a team, so everything can flow like it did last year.
The second day of tryouts was similar to the first, with a lot of defensive drills providing opportunities for some of the senior players to demonstrate their abilities; both senior Luke McComiskey and Wyatt Luke stood out. The team did start tryouts with some shooting drills as well, and ended with a 5-on-5 drill to help teach the team rotations to play help defense.
After tryouts were over, coach Rossi decided to talk to the whole team together before pulling people aside to talk to them individually. He talked to the team about a job well done through tryouts, but reiterated that there is still way more work to be put in.
“We have to put in a ton of plays and make a ton of adjustments to our defense. There is still a lot to be done before the season, and we don’t have a lot of time to get it all done” said Rossi.
“Even though we don’t have a lot of time, I know we are going to get it all done,” said senior captain Wyatt Luke. “We are a great group of guys and I believe that this is going to be a great season.”
With tryouts complete, the Morgan boys basketball team is now shifting focus to their first game of the season against Valley Regional on Tuesday, Dec 17. Valley, another team who graduated seven seniors last year, including key players Connor Quinn and Jack Driscoll look to start their rebuild as well. However, Valley lost a lot of production last year, with Quinn being the leader in points per game for the team and Driscoll being the leader in rebounds. Both teams will be looking to get a head start on their first game of the season with a win.
